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BS  2675  .R68  1858 
Rogers,  E.  P.  1817-1881. 
Everything  in  Christ 


rhf  John  .>J.  Krobs   Donation. 


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EVERY  THING  IN  CHRIST; 


AN    EXPOSITION 


FIRST    CORINTHIANS   1:   30, 


E.   P.   KOGEES,    D.D. 


AUTHOR    OF     "DISCOURSES    ON    ELECTION,        "EARNEST   WORDS 
TO     YOUNG     MEN,"     "THE     CLASSMATES,"     AC. 


NEW  YORK: 

BOARD     OF     PUBLICATION 
OF   THE 

REFORMED     PROTESTANT    DUTCH     CHURCH 
SYNOD'S    ROOMS,    61     FRANKLIN    ST. 

18  6  8. 


EsTtREU   ac-ording  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  l!^5S,  by 

REV.    THOMAS    C.    STRONG, 

On  behalf  of  the  Board  of  Publication  of  the  Reformed  Protestant  Dutch  Church 

in  North  America,  in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the 

United  States  for  the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


HOSFORD    &    CO., 
;tationers    and    printbrs, 

57  &  59  William  St.,   N.  Y.  [  2  ] 


PREFACE. 


Any  attempt,  however  liumhle,  to  recoininend  the  Blessed  Sa- 
viour to  the  faith  and  love  of  men,  and  to  induce  them  to  seek 
for  all  they  need  in  Him,  calls  for  no  apologetic  introduction.  This 
little  treatise  is  such  an  attem})t.  It  contains  no  new  or  original 
views  of  the  great  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  and  this,  the  Author 
hopes,  will  prove  one  of  its  mei-its.  The  views  of  standard  evan- 
gelical writers  are  presented  sometimes  in  their  own  language, 
sometimes  in  that  of  the  author.  In  treating  of  the  doctrine  of 
Sanctification,  great  assistance  has  been  derived  from  tlie  writings 
of  the  late  venerable  Dr.  Leonard  Woods,  whom  the  Author  re- 
gards as  one  of  the  ablest  and  soundest  of  American  Theologians. 
He  acknowledges,  also,  his  obligations  for  some  thoughts  on  the 
relation  of  Christ  as  our  "  Wisdom"  to  Rev.  Prof  Shedd.  He 
hopes  that  his  humble  effort  to  commend  Christ,  as  every  thing 
to  man,  may,  by  God's  blessing,  pi*ove  not  wholly  vnin. 


E.  P.  ROGERS. 


Albany,  July  1,  1858. 


[8] 


CHRIST 
EVERY  THING  TO  MAN 


i  "Christ  Jesus,  who  of  God  is  made  fnto  us  Wisdom, 
AND  Righteousness,  and  Sanctification,  and  Re- 
demption."    Ifit  Cor.  1:  30. 


[6] 


WISDOM 


That  passage  from  God's  word,  which  we  have 
placed  at  the  head  of  this  treatise,  is  full  of  rich  and 
glorious  signilicaiice.  It  sets  forth  Jesus  Christ,  in 
every  aspect,  in  which  he  is  necessary  and  precious 
to  man.  It  describes  the  commencement,  method, 
progress,  and  completion  of  his  great  work  of  salva- 
tion for  the  sinner.  The  grand  features  of  that  Avork, 
are  Insti'uction,  Justification,  Sanctification,  and  com- 
plete Redemption.  These  answer  to  the  great  fea- 
tures of  the  natural  state  of  man.  Ignorance,  Guilt, 
Pollution,  and  Condemnation.  Christ  enlightens  our 
ignorance,  and  is  thus  our  Wisdom.  He  procures 
our  Justification,  and  is  thus  our  Righteousness.  He 
purifies  us  from  our  pollution,  and  is  thus  our  Sancti- 
fication. And  he  assures  us  complete  and  eternal 
freedom  from  the  curse  of  sin,  and  is  thus  our  Re- 
demption. Thus  in  the  passage  before  us,  Christ  is 
presented  in  all  the  aspects  in  which  as  a  Saviour, 
he  is  necessary  and  precious  to  man. 


8  C  H  R  I  S  T     O  U  R 

It  is  our  purpose,  iu  the  following  pages,  to  consider 
these  different  features  of  that  great  work,  which  by 
the  special  appointment  of  God  the  Father,  is  accom- 
plished for  his  people,  by  God  the  Son. 

We  notice  then,  first,  the  truth  that  Christ  is  made 
of  God,  Wisdom,  to  his  people. 

Tlie  natural  state  of  man,  is  a  state  of  ignorance  in 
respect  to  moral  truth,  obligation,  and  duty.  It  is 
true  that  the  direful  effects  of  the  Apostasy,  have  not 
destroyed  the  intellectual  nature  of  man,  though 
doubtless  this  part  of  his  being  felt  the  shock  of  that 
rash  act,  which  broke  down  the  glory  of  his  physical 
and  moral  nature,  and  subjected  them  to  the  curse  of 
temporal  and  spiritual  death.  Man  has  still  the  noble 
gift  of  mind.  His  powers  of  perception  and  reason, 
still  distinguish  him  from  the  brute  creation.  He  has 
wonderful  capacities  for  the  acquirement  of  knowl- 
edge, and  can  make  and  does  make  great  attainments 
in  learning  and  science.  But  in  respect  to  moral 
truth  and  moral  obligation,  the  natural  state  of  man 
is  one  of  profound  ignorance.  He  feels  no  desire  to 
make  these  the  subject  of  his  investigation  and  in- 
quiry. The  instinctive  language  of  man's  heart  in 
respect  to  God,  is,  "  Depart  from  us,  for  we  desire  not 
the  knowledge  of  thy  w^ays."  We  do  not  assert  that 
man  by  nature  is  in  a  state  of  entire  and  wilful  igno- 
rance, in  respect  to  the  great  facts  and  doctrines  of 
natural  religion.  The  operations  of  his  own  mind, 
will,  and  do  lead  him  irresistibly  to  the  conclusion, 
that  there  is  a  superior  mind,  of  which  all  that  he 
sees  in  the  world  around  him,  is  the  fruit  and  creature. 

When  we  say  that  the  natural  state  of  man  is  one 


WISDOM.  9 

of  ignorance  of  God,  we  do  not  mean  by  this  that  he  is 
naturally  an  Atheist,  or  an  Iniidel.  He  may  concede 
tlie  truth  of  the  Divine  existence ;  he  may  believe  in 
all  the  natural  attributes  of  the  Deity ;  he  may  even 
entertain  grand  conceptions  of  those  attributes,  and 
yet  after  all  be  ignorant  of  God  and  moral  truth. 
He  may  be  a  firm  believer  in  all  that  is  taught  by 
what  is  called  natural  religion,  and  still  be  in  a  state 
of  deplorable  and  ruinous  ignorance  of  God.  And 
here  we  would  remark,  that  there  is  much  claimed 
for  natural  religion  and  its  professors,  which  is  in  our 
judgment  not  warranted  even  by  an  enlarged  charity; 
and  that  there  is  not  after  all  so  much  difference  be- 
tween those  who  receive  all  the  teachings  of  natural 
religion  in  respect  to  the  being  and  attributes  of  the 
Deity,  and  those  who  worship  a  creature  merely  of 
the  imagination,  or  bow  in  false  and  degrading  hom- 
age before  the  workmanship  of  their  own  hands. 

There  are  men  in  all  Christian  lands,  who  profess  to 
believe  in  God  and  his  perfections.  They  recognise 
and  admire  the  evidences  of  his  power  and  his  wis- 
dom, and  his  ubiquity  in  the  natural  world.  They 
trace  his  hand  in  the  operations  of  nature,  in  the 
courses  of  the  stars,  the  changes  of  the  seasons,  the 
processes  of  agriculture.  They  exercise  some  emotion 
in  view  of  the  magnitude  and  beauty  of  the  works 
of  his  hands,  and  they  claim  that  this  is  religious 
emotion,  and  openly  or  secretly  cherish  a  hope,  that 
this  will  stand  them  in  stead  when  they  meet  God  in 
the  judgment.  But  how  much  religion  is  there  in  the 
emotion  of  admiration,  which  a  sight  of  the  starry 
heavens  is  calculated  to  excite  in  an  irreligious  mind? 
1^ 


10  CHRISTOUK 

How  much  religion  is  there  in  that  impression  of  wis- 
dom and  power,  which  an  examination  of  tlie  laws 
and  ministries  of  nature  must  create  in  any  philosophic 
mind  ? 

The  natural  religionist  worships  not  God ;  he  adores 
not  the  Deity  as  he  is,  in  that  which  constitutes  the 
essence  and  glory  of  Divinity.  If  he  pays  any  hom- 
age, it  is  to  the  vital  principle ;  if  he  Avorships,  it  is 
the  force  of  gravity,  or  the  laws  of  the  solar  system ; 
if  he  exercise  emotion,  it  is  in  view  of  the  beauty  of 
a  passing  cloud,  or  the  gold  and  the  purple  of  the 
setting  sun,  and  he  is  as  really  an  idolater  as  is  the 
heathen  who  bows  down  before  a  visible  and  material 
idol.  ''And  that  system  of  thought  and  emotion, 
which  never  soars  into  the  region  of  moral  truth,  and 
supernatural  realities,  is  as  truly  material  as  is  the 
most  open  and  avowed  mxaterialism." 

It  may  seem  to  be  a  bold  assertion,  and  yet  we  are 
entirely  willing  to  make  it,  that  the  natural  attributes 
of  the  Deity  are  of  very  little  consequence  to  a  moral 
being,  if  these  are  all  he  considers  of  God.  For  as 
such,  they  are  not  and  cannot  be,  the  ground  or  occa- 
sion of  true  religious  feeling  in  the  creature.  The 
contemplation  of  these  attributes  merely,  does  not 
awaken  the  moral  sensibilities,  impress  a  sense  of 
moral  obligation,  or  induce  that  true  fear  and  adora- 
tion of  the  Deity  which  he  recjuires  of  all  his  rational 
creatures.  Considered  apart  from  his  moral  attri- 
butes, his  omnipresence,  his  omnipotence,  and  even 
his  wisdom,  have  very  little  meaning  for  man  as  a 
religious  being.  Leaving  out  of  view  the  moral  atti-i- 
butes  of  the  Deity,  there  is  very  little  diiference  be- 


WISDOM.  11 

tweeii  the  relations  wliicli  man  sustains  to  God,  and 
those  which  are  sustained  by  the  brute  creation.  It 
is  the  wisdom,  the  truth,  the  justice,  the  holiness,  the 
benevolence,  the  mercy  of  God,  which  appeal  to  man 
as  a  moral  being,  and  determine  the  superior  charac- 
ter of  his  relations  to  his  maker.  And  if  man  knows 
nothing  of  God  but  his  natural  attributes,  and  sustains 
no  relations  to  his  moral  perfections,  he  is  but  a  no- 
bler sort  of  brute,  and  his  existence  is  on  a  level  w^ith 
brute  existence.  Let  not  that  man  who  believes  in 
the  Divine  existence,  and  the  teachings  of  natural 
religion  in  respect  to  his  attributes,  think,  that  this 
entitles  him  to  claim  exemption  from  the  charge  of 
ignorance  of  God.  The  natural  perfections  which 
she  reveals  are  not  what  constitute  the  real  glory  of 
Divinity.  Tliey  are  not  that  w^hich  draws  out  the 
music  of  the  angels,  or  the  homage  of  the  pious  heart. 
We  have  seen  men  who  professed  to  be  sincere  be- 
lievers in  the  religion  of  Nature ;  who  would  read 
you  very  fluent  homilies  from  the  stars,  and  the 
rivers,  and  the  flowers ;  who  would  discourse  right 
eloquently  and  with  apparent  emotion,  upon  God  in 
IsTature,  finding  "  sermons  in  stones,  books  in  the  run- 
ning brooks,  and  good  in  everything,"  and  seemed  to 
glow  with  much  pious  fervor  as  they  dilated  upon  the 
natural  perfections  of  the  Deity,  standing  by  the 
mighty  cataract,  or  on  the  mountain  top,  or  under 
the  blaze  of  the  starry  firmament.  And  we  have  seen 
these  same  good  men,  shrink  back  in  uneasiness  and 
alarm,  the  moment  you  tried  to  bring  God  before  them 
in  the  splendor  of  his  moral  attributes,  and  make  them 
sensible  of  their  moral  obligations,  to  his  law  and  gov- 


12  C  H  K  I  S  T     ()  U  K 

erunient.  Their  God  was  only  in  Kature ;  he  spoke 
to  them  in  the  gentle  summer  breeze  ;  he  smiled  upon 
them  from  the  starlit  sky ;  he  painted  his  name  upon 
the  rose,  and  appealed  to  their  sense  of  the  beautiful 
and  sublime  in  the  natural  world.  But  when  you 
placed  the  Almighty  before  them,  in  the  solemn  and 
inexorable  relations  of  a  pure  and  holy  Ruler,  and 
revealed  the  awful  majesty  of  his  justice,  and  the  ter- 
rible nature  of  his  wrath,  and  let  loose  the  thunders 
of  his  law,  and  spoke  of  moral  obligation,  and  sin,  and 
condemnation;  oh!  then  they  cried,  "Depart  from 
us  for  we  desire  not  the  knowledge  of  thy  ways." 
"  This  is  not  our  God." 

Now  it  is  evident  that  no  man  can  properly  under- 
stand his  relations  to  God,  and  discharge  the  duties 
inseparably  connected  with,  and  growing  out  of  those 
relations,  who  has  no  knowledge  or  appreciation  of 
his  real  character.  The  very  first  thing  to  be  done 
for  a  sinful  man,  is  to  enlighten  him.  His  natural 
state  is  one  of  ignorance,  deep  and  deplorable  igno- 
rance of  all  that  constitutes  the  true  glory  of  Deity, 
and  on  wdiich  his  own  highest  relations  to  his  Maker 
are  founded.  He  must  be  made  to  know,  not  that 
God  is,  but  who  God  is,  before  he  can  feel  the  force 
of  the  obligations,  which  bind  him  to  his  service.  Let 
him  then  go  to  Nature,  and  ask  of  her  to  describe  to 
him  the  character  of  the  God  she  professes  to  reveal. 
Let  him  ask  of  the  towering  mountain,  who  is  God  ? 
and  the  utmost  which  it  can  say  is,  He  is  a  being  of 
power  enough  to  heave  me  up  from  the  surrounding 
plain,  and  bid  the  clouds  of  heaven  shed  their  mois- 
ture on  my  brow.     Let  him  ask  of  the  cataract,  and 


W  1  6  D  O  M  .  13 

it  cau  only  «ay,  lie  has  poured  my  iniglity  Hood  of 
waters  down  the  precipice,  and  shaken  the  lirmanient 
with  the  thunder  of  my  roaring.  Let  him  go  to  any 
scene  in  nature;  let  him  ask  of  all  that  is  majestic 
and  beautiful  on  earth,  Who  is  God  ?  and  amid  their 
myriad  voices,  there  is  not  one,  that  speaks  of  tlie 
holiness,  the  truth,  the  justice,  the  love,  the  mercy  of 
God.  The  most  learned  man  in  the  natural  sciences 
cannot,  if  he  confine  his  investigations  merely  to  na- 
ture, receive  the  first  idea  of  the  moral  character  of 
the  Deity.  I  know  we  are  told  that  we  may  "  look 
tlu-ough  nature  up  to  nature's  God,"  but  tliis  is  only 
one  of  mau}^  well  turned  periods  in  vogue  among  men, 
which  have  far  more  rhetorical  beauty  than  theologi- 
cal truth  in  them.  "What  is  there  in  the  law  of 
gravity,  which  has  the  least  tendency  to  lead  to  the 
recognition  of  the  law  of  holiness  ?  Is  there  any  simi- 
larity between  the  two  in  kind  ?  What  can  the  mo- 
tions of  the  sun  and  stars,  the  unvarying  return  of  the 
seasons,  the  birth,  growth  and  death  of  animated 
existence,  taken  hy  themselves^  teach,  regarding  the 
supernatural  attributes  of  God  ?  Take  away  from 
man  the  knowledge  of  God  which  is  contained  in  the 
human  spirit,  and  in  the  written  word,  and  leave  him 
to  find  his  way  up  to  a  personal  and  spiritual  Deity, 
by  the  light  of  nature  alone,  and  he  will  grope  in 
eternal  darkness,  if  for  no  other  reason,  because  he 
cannot  even  get  the  idea  of  such  a  being." 

Many  of  our  readers  may  be  supposing  that  their 
belief  in  natural  religion,  or  in  the  revelations  of  God, 
which  they  see  in  the  world  around  them,  is  so  fixed 
and  clear,  so  far  as  it  goes,  that  it  ought  to  exempt 


14  CHRISTOUR 

them  from  the  charge  of  utter  ignorance  of  their  Ma- 
ker ;  and  also  constitute  a  foundation  for  more  ex- 
tended and  better  acquaintance  with  him.     In  our 
judgment,  tlicy  are  mistaken  in  both  impressions.    A 
man  is  truly  ignorant  of  God,  if  he  be  not  acquainted 
witli  that  which  constitutes  the  real  essence  and  glory 
of  Deity.     And  for  this  he  must  look  for  a  higher 
revelation  than  is  opened  in  the  book  of  nature,  and 
instead  of  looking  through  nature  up  to  nature's  God,     | 
we  hold  that  a  man  must  have  some  knowledge  of      ' 
God  from  other  sources,  to  be  able  rightly  to  under- 
stand nature  herself.     It  is  much  more  in  accordance     jj 
with  true  philosophy  to  descend  from  nature's  God  to      { 
nature,  and  starting  witli  the  great  fact  that  God  is,      ' 
and  that  he  is  a  being  of  infinite  wisdom,  power,     || 
holiness,  justice,  goodness  and  truth,  derived  from  a 
higher  source,  to  trace  out  in  the  wide  field  of  nature,      ; 
amid  much  that  is  perplexing  and  apparently  contra-     ' 
dictory,  the  manifestation  of  a  being  already  believed 
in,  and  the  illustration  of  attributes  already  revealed,     i ! 
It  seems  to  us  that  there  is  great  danger,  yea  moral     |l 
certainty,  that  that  mind  which  does  not  study  God  in     '< 
its  own  constitution,  and  derives  no  knowledge  of  him     i 
from  direct  and  divine  revelation,  but  attempts  to 
deduce  the   character  of  the  Deity,   only  from   the      \ 
developments  of  the  natural  world,  must  at  last  land      j 
in  utter  scepticism.    A  world  where  the  spirit  of  good     l| 
seems  ever  to  maintain  an  unequal  conflict  with  the      ' 
spirit  of  evil ;  a  world  of  storms  and  deserts,  of  tire 
and  flood,  of  poisonous  reptiles  and  abandoned  men ;     I 
a  world  of  ignorance  and  poverty,  crime  and  wretch-     i 
edness,  sickness  and  sorrow,  pain  and  death ;  what     \ 


WISDOM.  15 

can  such  a  world,  by  itself,  teach  of  the  justice,  the 
holiness,  the  love  of  God.  We  know  it  speaks  of  his 
])ower  and  his  intelligence ;  but  if  there  is  a  God,  we 
want  to  know  something  more  than  this  about  him. 
If  YOU  were  to  tell  me  of  a  man  to  whom  I  sustained 
the  most  solemn  and  important  relations ;  in  whose 
hands,  and  at  whose  absolute  disposal,  was  all  that  I 
held  dear,  I  should  ask  of  you  with  intense  anxiety, 
what  sort  of  a  man  he  was.  You  show  me  a  steam 
engine,  and  tell  me  that  it  is  his  work.  I  examine  its 
parts  and  see  that  it  is  a  wonderful  piece  of  mechan- 
ism, and  am  impressed  with  the  skill  and  ingenuity  of 
its  contriver.  I  see  it  put  into  operation,  and  behold  its 
wonderful  power,  and  efficiency,  and  usefulness,  and 
I  am  more  and  more  impressed  with  the  power  and 
skill  of  the  inventor,  but  still  I  gain  no  knowledge 
of  his  moral  character.  That  wonderful  machine  tells 
me  not  a  word  of  his  justice,  his  goodness,  his  integ- 
rity, his  purity,  his  mercy.  I  look  at  it  again  with  an 
intense  yearning  for  some  satisfying  information,  and, 
lo  !  with  the  noise  of  thunder  it  explodes — tears  the 
hapless  men  around  it  into  a  thousand  pieces,  and 
scatters  ruin  and  desolation  all  around.  What  lessons 
do  I  now  learn  from  this  sole  revelation  of  the  being 
you  commend  to  my  reverence  and  obedience?  You 
may  tell  me  that  he  is  wise,  and  just,  and  good,  a^^ 
well  as  skillful  and  powerful,  and  that  I  ought  to  obey 
and  love  him,  but  I  see  nothing  but  the  awful  wreck, 
the  mangled  bodies  of  the  dead,  the  groans  of  the 
dying,  the  shrieks  of  the  widow  and  the  oi-phan ;  and 
I  must  either  deny  that  there  is  such  a  being  as  you 
speak  of,  or  demand,  that  in  mercy  to  my  distressed 


16  CHRIST     OUR 

and  bewildered  spirit,  you  will  give  me  some  other 
revelation  of  a  higher  character,  that  may  teach  me 
how  to  understand  the  scene  before  me,  and  reconcile 
it  with  those  moral  attributes  and  qualities,  which 
would  justly  command  my  admiration  and  my  love. 

So  man,  in  order  to  gain  any  correct,  satisfying 
knowledge  of  God  :  any  knowledge  that  will  be  worth 
anything  to  him  as  a  moral  and  religious  being ;  any 
knowledge,  that  will  bring  the  Deity  before  him  as  a 
Being  to  be  revered,  and  loved,  and  obeyed,  and  con- 
tided  in,  needs  a  higher  revelation  than  nature,  by 
whose  aid  he  can  unravel  all  that  is  apparently  con- 
tradictory and  confounding  in  her  wide  spread  and 
crowded  volume.  He  who  goes  to  nature  only  for  his 
idea  of  God,  and  who  looks  to  her  teachings  as  the 
foundation  for  loftier  discoveries,  has  no  better  philoso 
phy,  than  the  ancient  Pagans,  who  rested  the  ever- 
lasting heavens  on  the  shoulders  of  "the  earth  born 
Atlas  ;"  and  though  he  may  profess  to  entertain  lofty 
ideas  and  grand  conceptions  of  that  mighty  Being  who 
regulates  the  movements  of  the  heavens,  and  makes 
"  the  crystal  spheres  ring  out  their  silver  chimes,"  yet 
in  respect  to  all  that  makes  the  essence  and  the  glory 
of  the  Deity,  and  all  that  is  most  important  for  a  ra- 
tional and  accountable  soul  to  know,  he  has  inscribed 
upon  his  altar,  "  To  the  unknown  God." 

On  this  universal  condition  of  the  human  mind,  or 
condition  of  ignorance  and  darkness,  God  has  out  of 
his  own  good  j^leasure  poured  the  light  of  revelation. 
And  he  has  made  his  Son  the  medium  of  this  revelation. 
"  Christ  is  made  of  God  unto  us  wisdom."  Here  is  the 
source  of  all  our  best  knowledge  of  God.  The  question 


WISDOM.  17 

then  arises,  how  does  Christ  communicate  the  know- 
ledge of  God  to  the  soul  of  man?  We  answer;  in  his 
personal  character,  and  his  atoning  work,  Christ  re- 
veals God  to  man. 

Christ  is  represented  always  in  the  Scriptures  as 
God,  manifesting  himself  to  men  in  a  tangible  form, 
one  like  their  own,  and  wdiich  would  have  great  power 
over  them,  because  it  was  one  with  which  they  could 
most  readily  sympathize.  The  language  of  the  Bible 
is  so  plain  and  unequivocal  on  this  point,  that  we  can- 
not regard  the  Redeemer  as  he  appeared  on  earth,  as 
any  other  than  God-man — Deity  incarnate,  "  who  is 
the  brightness  of  his  Father's  glory,  and  the  express 
image  of  his  person."  ^'  In  whom  dwelt  all  the  full- 
ness of  the  Godhead,  bodily."  "  Who  is  the  image  of 
the  invisible  God."  "  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh." 
All  these  passages  declare,  if  there  is  any  meaning  in 
language,  that  Jesus  Christ  was  God  manifested  to 
men,  not  in  an  angelic  but  in  human  nature.  IN'ow, 
the  chai'acter  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  is  just  such  a 
character  as  we  would  suppose  w^ould  appertain  to  a 
Being  who  was  to  be  a  manifestation  of  God  to  man. 
It  is  in  all  respects  a  superhuman  character.  It  stands 
out  on  the  pages  of  sacred  and  profane  history,  a  liv- 
ing, breathing,  beautiful,  miracle  of  goodness.  It  is 
perfect,  and  the  only  perfect  character  the  world  has 
ever  beheld.  We  speak  not  of  the  humble  position  ^ 
which  tlie  Bedeemer  assumed,  or  the  lowly  paths  in 
which  he  walked.  That  was  a  part  of  his  work,  es- 
sential to  atonement,  and  satisfaction  to  law.  But  his 
splendid  moral  character,  to  the  beauty  and  sublimity 
of  wdiicli,  earthlv  rank  and  station  would  have  added 


IS  r  n  R  I  !^  T   o  r  K 

110  more,  than  ii  rush  light  to  the  sun ;  his  perfect  puri- 
ty, goodness,  truth,  integrity — this  was  God  manifest- 
ed to  man — Deity  embodied — Divinity  incarnate — the 
infinitely  glorious  and  perfect  God  displayed  before 
the  eyes  and  hearts  of  men.  God  has  been  thus 
numifested,  only  in  Christ.  Apart  from  him,  the  Al- 
mighty is  God  abstract ;  in  Christ  he  is  God  embodied. 
Apart  from  Christ,  he  is  Deity  absolute  ;  in  him,  he  is 
Deity  revealed.  From  no  other  medium  does  the  great 
and  glorious  "  I  am  "  come  down  to  the  human  soul. 
In  no  other  way  does  he  communicate  himself  to  us. 
Christ,  alone,  "  is  made  of  God  unto  us  Wisdom." — 
He  is  just  such  a  being  as  God  would  present  to  us,  if 
he  wished  to  make  a  manifestation  of  himself  to  man, 
in  the  best  possible  form,  for  his  comprehension,  ad- 
miration and  love.  In  his  personal  character,  we  have 
every  moral  perfection,  which  we  ascribe  to  the  Deity, 
or  regard  as  essential  to  his  nature.  It  is  true  these 
are  embodied  in  a  human  form,  but  while  the  form  is 
human,  the  character  is  divine.  The  flesh  and  blood 
are  those  of  a  man ;  the  holiness,  integrity,  wisdom, 
benevolence,  truth,  are  those  of  a  God.  Here  we  must 
go  to  learn  what  God  is.  ISTature  has  no  teachings  like 
these.  She  may  tell  us  that  God  is,  but  she  cannot 
tell  us  what  he  is.  His  natural  attributes  are  not  those 
which  the  deej)est  utterences  in  our  souls  are  asking 
for.  His  power  and  intelligence  are  nothing  to  us,  if 
we  can  know  nothing  else  about  him.  They  may  be 
the  power  and  intelligence  of  a  Being,  whom  we  might 
fear,  but  could  not  respect ;  whom  we  might  respect, 
but  could  not  love  and  trust.  We  must  know  more 
about  this  God  of  nature.     Our  spiritual  natures  will 


WISDOM.  19 

be  wronged  and  beggared  and  outcast,  if  we  have  no 
otliei"  than  material  teachers,  to  reveal  Him  to  their 
capacities,  and  sensibilities,  and  aitections. 

Christ  comes  to  meet  and  satisfy  this  necessity  of 
tlie  human  soul.  Without  him,  the  night  of  ignorance 
which  broods  over  an  apostate  world,  would  have 
been  a  starless  night.  Without  him,  the  desert  in 
which  the  children  of  men  are  toilin^r  throuc:h  their 
weary  pilgrimage,  would  have  been  without  a  foun- 
tain. AVithout  him,  man  would  have  known  but  lit- 
tle more  than  the  bare  fact  that  God  is,  and  been  tor- 
tured with  an  ungratified  longing  to  discover,  what 
he  is.  jSTow,  in  the  superhuman  splendors  and  per- 
fections of  Christ' s  personal  character,  man  may  study 
God  ;  through  a  veil  indeed,  as  best  suited  to  his  weak 
vision  ;  but  yet  his  conceptions  of  his  character,  though 
they  must  be  inadequate,  need  not  be  erroneous,  for 
in  Christ,  he  beholds  the  image  of  the  invisible  God, 
and  sees  a  moral  character,  which  challenges  his  pro- 
foundest  reverence,  commands  his  loftiest  admiration, 
and  wins  his  purest  affection. 

Here,  then,  is  the  first  method  in  which  Christ  be- 
comes the  source  of  instruction  to  man,  in  respect  to 
God.  In  his  personal  character  he  exhibits  those 
moral  perfections  which  are  essential  to  Deity,  and 
which  constitute  the  supreme  excellence  and  glory,  of 
the  Godhead.  It  is  needless  for  me  to  specify  and 
describe  those  perfections  in  detail.  They  glow  in 
their  celestial  beauty,  on  every  page  in  the  record  of 
his  life.  Come  then,  ye  who  have  only  studied  God 
in  nature,  and  have  vainly  imagined  that  she  could 
be  a  competent  instructress ;  come,  ye  who  are  learned 


20  CHRISTOUK 

in  natural  science,  who  have  bowed  and  worshiped 
only  in  her  temple,  come  and  study  God  in  Christ. 
The  laws  of  the  planetary  system,  gravitation,  mag- 
netism, electricity,  have  never  revealed  God  to  you 
in  his  most  resplendent  glories.  They  have  not 
spoken  to  you  as  a  moral  and  accountable  being,  and 
reached  with  their  utterances,  your  spiritual  ear. 
They  have  never  brought  God  home  to  your  souls, 
and  made  you  feel  the  power  of  that  grand  idea  in 
the  depths  of  your  moral  nature.  The  knowledge  of 
God,  which  you  have  gained  from  nature,  has  not 
exerted,  that  enlightening,  convicting,  renewing,  con- 
trolling influence,  over  your  moral  sensibilities  and 
powers,  which  the  idea  of  an  infinitely  holy,  just  and 
benevolent  God,  ought  to  exert  upon  every  subject  of 
his  moral  government. 

You  have  never  known  God  as  yet,  and  conse- 
quently you  have  never  realized,  how  little  you  are 
like  him  in  moral  character.  But  study  now,  God 
in  Christ ;  make  that  character  of  superhuman,  super- 
angelic,  infinite,  immutable,  and  eternal  perfection, 
your  study.  Dwell  upon  every  matchless  virtue, 
every  exalted  grace,  which  shone  out  in  a  God  incar- 
nate, until  you  begin  to  understand  something  of  the 
power  and  beauty  of  supreme  moral  excellence.  Tlien, 
under  the  quickening  influences  of  the  Divine  Spirit, 
you  will  be  ready  to  exclaim,  as  the  conviction  of  your 
own  immeasurable  distance  from  such  excellence, 
forces  itself  with  overwhelming  power  into  your  mind, 
"  I  have  heard  of  thee  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear,  but 
now  mine  eye  seeth  thee,  wherefore  I  abhor  myself, 
and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes."     Thus  will  the  first 


WISDOM.  21 

lesson  wliicli  Clirist,  the  wisdom  of  God,  is  appointed 
to  teach  to  sinful  man,  be  imparted  to  your  mind  ; 
thus  will  the  first  ray  of  heavenly  light  beam  in  upon 
your  darkened  soul. 


II. 
WISDOM 


In  the  preceding  cliapter,  we  endeavored  to  show 
the  superiority  of  the  revelation  which  Christ  makes 
of  the  character  of  God,  over  the  teachings  of  mere 
natural  religion.  We  showed  that  the  latter  revealed 
only  the  natural  attributes  of  the  Deity,  but  shed  no 
light  upon  his  moral  perfections.  These  were  display- 
ed in  the  personal  character  of  Christ,  in  all  their  per- 
fection, and  therefore,  the  conclusion  was,  that  no  man 
can  entertain  correct  views  of  God,  which  are  essent- 
ial to  any  understanding  of  his  own  relations  to  him, 
and  a  discharge  of  the  duties  inseparably  connected 
with  those  relations,  who  has  not  studied  God  in  a 
higher  and  fuller  revelation  than  nature  affords ;  wlio 
has  not  become  familiar  with  the  history  of  the  God 
incarnate,  and  with  reverence  and  humility  sat  at 
Jesus'  feet  and  learned  of  him. 

But  it  would  be  doing  great  injustice  to  Christ,  and 
to  the  object  of  his  mission  to  earth,  to  say  that  he  is 
made  by  God  to  ns  Wisdom,  or  Knowledge,  simply 

22 


WISDOM.  23 

by  the  beautiful  exhibition  of  his  personal  character. 
The  revelation  which  he  makes  to  man  of  those  great 
moral  truths,  which  have  the  most  intimate  and  im- 
portant relations,  to  his  spiritual  being  and  his  evci-- 
lasting  welfare,  is  not  merely  by  the  force  of  exam])le. 
His  whole  work  of  Atonement,  connnencing,  as  it  did 
when  he  drew  his  first  breath  in  the  manger  at  Betli- 
lehem,  to  the  hour  of  agony  when  on  the  cross,  he  ex- 
claimed, ''It  is  finished,  and  gave  up  the  ghost,"  is 
full  of  instruction  to  man,  in  repect  to  the  character 
of  God,  his  own  relations  to  him,  his  state,  his  duty, 
and  his  destiny.  Christ,  as  our  exemplar,  is  subordin- 
ate to  Christ  as  our  atoning  sacrifice.  Tlie  perfection 
of  his  character,  was  essential  to  the  validity  of  his 
work  of  atonement,  and  we  must  first  receive  him  as 
our  Redeemer,  and  learn  the  lessons  taught  by  his  sa- 
crifice, before  he  becomes  anything  to  us  as  a  guide 
and  an  example. 

The  atoning  work  of  Christ  then,  is  the  source  of 
that  revelation  of  God  to  man,  which  is  needful  to 
enlighten  his  ignorance,  and  prepare  the  way  for  his 
full  redemption. 

We  are  aware  that  the  ground  over  wliich  our  sub- 
ject calls  us  to  pass,  is  very  familiar  ground.  Bethle- 
hem, Gethsemane,  Calvary,  are  household  words.  The 
history  of  our  Saviour's  life  and  sufierings  is  as  well 
known  as  the  history  of  our  native  land;  and  yet 
Christ  and  him  crucified,  is  a  theme  which  can  never 
be  exhausted.  For  two  thousand  years,  the  noblest 
minds  have  consecrated  to  it  tlieir  best  efi'orts;  the 
deepest  hearts  have  lavished  upon  it  their  choicest 
affections ;  yet  it  is  to-day  arrayed  in  all  the  freshness 


24:  C  H  B  I  B  T     U  U  R 

and  bloom  of  youth;  it  has  elements  of  beauty,  and 
pathos,  and  power,  which  can  never  die.  ''  Like  mar- 
ble, it  may  be  polished  as  long  as  the  very  stone  re- 
mains; like  gold,  it  but  increases  in  brightness  witli 
every  successive  attrition." 

Let  us  then  turn  to  the  history  of  Christ,  as  an  aton- 
ing sacriiice  for  sin,  and  see  the  splendid  revelation 
which  it  makes  of  the  sublime  moral  truths,  with 
which  the  human  soul  is  most  deeply  concerned. 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  us  in  this  history,  is  the 
wonderful  discrepancy  between  the  personal  character 
of  our  divine  Redeemer,  and  the  outward  circumstan- 
ces of  his  earthly  life.  This  discrepancy  is  indeed 
noticeable  in  the  history  of  his  birth  and  childhood. 
A  new  orb  in  the  heavens  announces  his  birth,  and  a 
choir  of  angels  sing  his  natal  song,  in  the  melodies  of 
the  skies.  Wise  men  from  the  east  are  moved  to  fol- 
low the  guidance  of  the  star,  as  it  travels  westward  on 
its  radiant  path.  But  it  stops  not  to  shed  its  light 
upon  the  palace  of  a  monarch,  and  to  throw  its  radi- 
ance around  the  slumbers  of  a  new  born  prince.  It 
illumines  a  rude  stable  with  its  beams,  and  sheds  a 
halo  round  the  manger,  where  lies  the  babe  of  Beth- 
lehem. And  as  if  to  stamp  even  the  hour  of  his  birth 
with  a  peculiar  character,  whicli  should  distinguish  it 
from  that  of  all  the  sons  of  men,  he  whose  entrance 
into  the  world  brought  out  a  new  star  in  the  heavens, 
and  woke  on  earth  the  music  of  the  skies,  is  born  an 
outcast  from  the  sons  of  men,  and  draws  his  first 
breath  amid  the  beasts  of  the  stall.  "What  a  strange 
blending  of  glory  and  of  shame,  of  loftiness,  and  low- 
liness, of  the  honors  of  heaven,  and  the  reproaches  of 


WISDOM.  25 

earth,  cliaracterizcs  the  early  history  of  him  who  was 
to  be  the  great  revcaler  <>f  God  to  man. 

The  same  peculiarity  marks  his  after  life.  lie  is  a 
child  of  poverty  and  obscnrity ;  an  exile  from  the  halls 
of  learning,  and  the  discipline  of  the  schools;  and  yet 
in  his  boyhood,  he  stands  in  the  temple,  amid  the  ven- 
erable iiabbi's  and  the  learned  Doctors,  and  not  the 
wisest  of  the  throng  can  iind  learning  enough  to  an- 
sw^er  his  questions;  and  they  retire,  wondering,  con- 
fused, humbled,  yet  admiring,  from  the  unequal  strife. 
He  becomes  a  man ;  he  does  not  leave  the  lowly  sphere 
in  which  he  was  born;  he  is  but  the  carpenter's  son; 
yet  he  adorns  that  sphere  with  graces,  which  would 
have  added  lustre  to  an  angel's  crown,  and  makes  it 
sublime  with  power  wdiich  seems  to  have  been  wrested 
from  Jehovah's  throne.  He  is  weary  and  faint  with 
hunger,  and  asks  water  for  his  thirst  at  the  hands  even 
of  an  enemy  of  his  nation.  Yet  he  satisfies  the  hunger 
of  a  starving  multitude,  by  a  miraculous  multiplication 
of  that  which  w^ould  have  been  a  pittance  for  his  few 
disciples.  He  bears  about  a  body  that  can  feel  the 
pangs  of  sickness,  that  can  quiver  under  the  lash,  and 
bleed  beneath  the  stroke;  yet  at  his  voice  the  sick 
man  springs  from  his  couch  in  strength  and  gladness, 
the  blind  man's  eyes  are  opened,  the  withered  mem- 
ber is  restored,  and  even  the  sheeted  dead  are  recall- 
ed from  the  cold  bosom  of  the  sepulchre.  In  all  his 
history,  we  see  most  strangely  blended  the  power  of 
divinity  with  the  w^eakness  of  humanity;  the  glories 
of  the  God,  with  the  sorrows  of  the  man.  The  perfect 
beauty  and  splendor  of  his  moral  character  too,  con- 
tribute to  the  peculiarity  of  his  history.  No  tongue 
2 


26  C  U  K  I  S  T     O  U  R 

has  ever  lisped  a  syllable  against  him.  Purity,  truth, 
integrity,  Imniility,  disinterestedness,  pity,  benevo- 
lence; every  lovely  and  winning  trait,  which  can  dig- 
nify and  adorn  character,  was  displayed  in  him.  Yet 
he  was  never  popular  with  men.  Many  followed  him, 
but  few  loved  him.  He  was  a  man  of  the  people, 
their  friend  and  benefactor,  yet  he  was  never  honored 
or  rewarded  by  the  people.  His  many  virtues,  his  i 
numberless  acts  of  kindness,  of  magnanimity,  of  gen-  I 
erosity,  the  devotion  of  his  life  to  the  good  of  others,  | 
all  could  not  save  him.  In  his  early  manhood,  he  was  ! 
sacrificed  to  the  malice  of  an  infuriate  mob.  A  life  \ 
of  scorn,  and  contumely,  and  persecution,  was  closed  { 
with  the  scourge,  the  thorns,  the  cross.  The  life  which  j 
began  in  humiliation,  was  characterized  by  perfect 
beauty  and  virtue,  protracted  in  suffering,  was  closed  j 
in  agony  and  blood.  The  breath  which  was  first  drawn  j 
in  a  manger,  nnder  the  radiance  of  a  newly  kindled  j 
star,  was  at  last  exhaled  upon  the  cross,  nnder  the 
darkness  of  an  extinguished  sun.  That  brief  existence,  | 
whose  dawn  was  celebrated  by  the  songs  of  angels,  was  J 
embittered  in  its  close,  by  the  tannts  of  fiendish  men. 
And  what  an  enigma  w^ould  this  history  be,  taken 
only  by  itself,  apart  from  the  written  revelation  of 
God !  Who  could  solve  it,  without  the  key  which  the 
doctrine  of  the  Atonement,  furnishes  to  the  mighty 
mysteries  of  the  manger  and  the  cross  ?  If  the  pro- 
pitiatory character  be  divorced  from  the  history  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  can  understand  that  history  ? 
What  human  or  angelic  mind,  can  harmonize  its  dis- 
cordant voices,  or  reduce  its  chaotic  elements  to  order  ? 
In  place  of  reflecting  light  upon  God's  character,  or 


WISDOM.  27 

man's  well-being,  it  would  itself  be  shrouded  in  dark- 
ness. But  when  we  apply  the  solution  furnished  by 
the  revelation  of  those  who  were  inspired  to  speak  of 
the  coming  Redeemer,  and  describe  the  peculiarity 
of  his  mission  to  our  world ;  when  we  read  the  ancient 
})rophecies,  which  hold  up  Christ  to  view,  as  the  great 
atoning  sacriiice  for  man ;  when  we  study  the  scenes 
of  Calvary,  from  the  base  of  Sinai,  and  understand 
the  teachings  of  the  shadowy  ritual  of  the  Mosaic 
dispensation;  oh!  then  this  dark  page  is  radiant  with 
light ;  and  it  gleams  with  glorious  lessons  of  the  sub- 
limest  perfections  of  God  and  the  noblest  interests  of 
man. 

We  have  alluded  to  the  perfect  and  beautiful  char- 
acter of  Christ,  a  character  such  as  we  should  suppose 
would  be  assumed  by  a  being  who  was  intended  to 
be  a  manifestation  of  God  to  man.  Every  trait  which 
could  challenge  admiration,  command  respect,  and 
elicit  affection,  was  displayed  by  him.  His  life  was 
one  continued  history  of  self-sacrihce  for  the  good  of 
others,  and  never  has  there  appeared  in  our  world,  a 
being  so  worthy  of  the  title  of  an  universal  benefac- 
tor. Now,  there  are  two  remarkable  features  in  the  his- 
tory of  Christ :  the  one,  that  with  such  a  character  he 
should  have  been  the  object  of  such  constant  and  un- 
relenting persecution  and  hatred ;  the  other,  that  he 
sliould  have  voluntarily  submitted  to  it  all,  and  even 
offered  up  his  life  a  sacrifice,  to  the  malice  of  his  foes. 
For  it  must  be  remembered,  that  his  power  was  as 
perfect  as  his  virtue.  He,  at  whose  bidding  tlie  wild 
waves  of  ocean  hushed  their  angry  clamors,  and  who 
could  break  the  sceptre  of  the  King  of  Terrors,  had 


28  C  H  R  I  S  T     O  U  R 

nothing  to  fear  from  tlie  malice  of  mortal  men.  With 
a  wave  of  his  hand  he  could  liave  stretched  them  life- 
less at  his  feet,  or  blasted  them  with  the  lightning  ot 
his  eye.  But  he  never  so  much  as  opened  his  mouth 
in  angry  words,  or  exerted  his  wonderful  power  in 
self-defence.     He  freely  suffered  and  freely  died. 

Nothing  but  the  doctrine,  that  Christ  came  to  earth 
to  be  a  sacrifice  for  sin,  and  atone  for  man's  trans- 
gressions, can  explain  these  peculiarities  of  his  history. 
But  this  explains  them  most  full}^  Ilis  perfect  char- 
acter made  him  a  worthy  ottering.  Had  any  stain  of 
guilt  rested  upon  him,  then  the  meritorious  character 
of  his  sacrifice  would  have  been  vitiated.  Had  he 
been  an  unwilling  victim,  then  the  justice  of  God 
could  not  have  been  honored  by  his  sufferings,  and 
his  death  would  have  cast  an  ineftaceable  blot  upon 
Jehovah's  spotless  throne.  By  his  own  freedom  from 
liability  to  the  penalty  of  sin,  he  was  capable  of  being 
a  ransom  for  the  guilty ;  and  by  his  voluntary  self- 
substitution  in  their  stead,  he  enabled  the  govern- 
ment of  God  to  accept  the  surety,  and  remit  its  claims 
upon  man,  the  principal  offender. 

In  this  his  atoning  work,  Christ  is  made  of  God, 
Wisdom  to  man.  He  sheds  light  upon  the  character 
of  God,  the  claims  of  his  law,  man's  relations  to  that 
law,  and  the  mode  of  his  escape  from  its  condemna- 
tion. 

The  most  glorious  features  in  the  character  of  Deity, 
are  his  holiness,  his  justice,  and  his  love.  These  are 
the  qualities  that  appeal  most  strongly  to  the  moral 
sensibilities  of  the  soul.  Nature  luis  no  revelation  to 
make  to  man  of  these  qualities  of  God.     The  sub- 


WISDOM.  29 

lime  silence  of  her  forests  is  never  broken,  by  voices 
which  speak  of  them,  to  the  spiritual  ear.  In  the 
murmuring  of  her  breezes,  or  the  melodies  of  her 
birds,  there  are  no  such  lofty  strains.  Her  most  pre- 
cious ''  stones,"  deliver  no  sermons  on  these  topics, 
and  the  books  in  her  "  running  brooks"  have  no  pages 
for  them.  He  who  studies  God  only  in  her  volume, 
will  never  see  the  real  glories  of  his  character,  will 
never  feel  the  transforming  influence  of  such  know- 
ledge, and  know  by  his  own  rich  experience,  the  beauty 
and  the  power  of  "  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man." 

But  what  revelations  does  Christ,  in  his  work  of 
atonement,  make  of  the  attributes  of  God  ?  Consider 
how  it  manifests  his  holiness. 

The  holiness  of  God  is  that  element  in  his  nature, 
which  prompts  him  to  entertain  the  deepest  aversion 
to  sin.  It  ensures  an  infinite  and  everlasting  abhor- 
rence of  all  moral  evil.  In  the  personal  character  of 
Christ,  we  can  see  this  attribute  of  the  Deity,  but  it  is 
rather  subjective  holiness,  and  therefore  it  does  not  so 
speak  to  the  world,  of  the  depth  and  power  of  God's 
essential  holiness.  But  in  his  sacrifice  we  behold, 
the  objective  manilestation  of  this  attribute.  We  see 
God  expressing  his  utter  abhorrence  of  sin ;  the  pro- 
found revulsion  of  his  nature  from  evil,  not  merely 
by  abstaining  fi-om  sin  himself  in  the  person  of  Christ ; 
not  merely  exhibiting  a  pure  and  spotless  personal  char- 
acter, for  the  admiration  of  men,  but  by  pouring  out  the 
vials  of  his  wrath  upon  his  beloved  Son,  who  stood  as 
the  surety  and  representative  of  a  sinful  and  rebellious 
race.  To  illustrate  the  difference  between  the  revela- 
tion wlilcli  is  made  in  the  personal  choracter  of  Christ, 


30  CHRISTOUR 

of  God's  holiness,  and  that  which  is  made  by  his 
atoning  work,  we  will  suppose,  that  I  have  a  iieigli- 
bor,  whose  character  has  always  appeared  to  me  to  be 
unusually  pure  and  upright.  There  has  never  been 
Muy  peculiar  circumstance  in  his  history,  which  has 
l)rouglit  his  moral  qualities  especially  before  my  con- 
sideration. I  have  never  seen  him  subjected  to  any 
severe  test,  but  from  a  general  observation  of  his  every 
day  walk,  I  have  been  led  to  entertain  the  Opinion, 
that  he  is  a  just  and  good  man.  lie  has  an  only  son, 
whom  he  loves,  with  all  a  father's  fond  affection.  I 
happen  one  day  to  go  to  his  house,  and  I  find  him 
chastising  that  son,  with  the  utmost  severity.  It  does 
not  seem  to  be  the  result  of  passion.  The  expression 
of  his  face  is  that  of  mingled  sadness  and  righteous 
indignation;  thei'e  are  deep  lines  of  grief  upon  his 
brow  ;  there  are  tears  in  his  eyes  ;  nothing  like  rage 
or  fury,  but  calm,  deep,  just  displeasure,  blended 
with  intense  and  yearning  affection.  But  his  arm  fal- 
ters not,  but  resolutely  inllicts  stroke  after  stroke,  un- 
til the  measure  of  punishment  is  filled  up.  I  ask  for 
an  explanation,  and  he  gives  it  to  me  in  tones  of  the 
deepest  feeling,  but  with  no  trace  of  passion.  His  son 
has  done  wrong.  He  has  been  guilty  of  great  wick- 
edness. He  has  broken  his  father's  solemn  law,  and 
that  father  has  inflicted  the  threatened  and  merited 
punishment.  As  he  tells  me  the  history,  and  I  see 
how  every  moral  sensibility  of  his  soul  recoils  in  hor- 
ror from  the  sin,  while  yet  there  is  not  one  shade  of 
vindictiveness  in  his  anger  against  the  offender ;  as  I 
behold  the  sublime  resolution  which  nerves  his  arm 
against  that  offending  son,  every  former  impression 


WISDOM.  31 

wliich  I  had  entertained  of  that  man's  virtue  and  in- 
tegrity is  strengtliened  a  linndred-fohl,  and  the  convic- 
tion is  forever  riveted  upon  mv  mind,  that  he  is  a  just 
and  holy  man. 

llius,  the  contemplation  of  God's  holiness  in  the 
personal  character  of  the  incarnate  Deity,  may  pro- 
duce some  impression  upon  the  mind,  but  it  cannot  for 
a  moment  compare  with  the  power  of  the  manifesta- 
tion of  this  essential  attribute,  w^hich  has  been  made 
to  the  universe,  by  the  amazing  spectacle  of  the  suffer- 
ings and  the  death  of  his  only  begotten  and  well  be- 
loved Son. 

Christ  in  tlie  manger — Christ  in  the  garden — Christ 
in  the  judgment  hall — Christ  on  the  cross,  teaches  how 
sublimely  awful  is  that  holiness  which  spared  not  its 
best  beloved,  but  laid  upon  him  the  stroke  of  that 
fearful  holy  anger,  which  none  but  infinite  purity 
outraged,  and  eternal  love  slighted,  could  feel;  and 
which  forced  the  pure  and  spotless  Redeemer,  bowed 
and  humbled  under  the  burden  of  others'  guilt,  to 
tread  alone  the  wine  press  of  the  wrath  of  God. 

So  also,  Christ  the  atoning  sacritice  for  sin,  reveals 
to  man,  in  awfully  impressive  lessons,  the  justice 
of  God.  He  is  the  substitute  for  a  sinful  race.  Guilt- 
less himself,  he  stands  in  the  place  of  the  guilty.  The 
Father  lays  on  him  the  iniquity  of  us  all.  He  beholds 
in  him,  not  his  innocent,  holy  Son;  but  he  beholds 
him  only  as  the  surety  for  a  rebellious  and  condemned 
creation,  and  he  pours  upon  his  devoted  head,  the  tor- 
rent of  indignation  which  they  deserve.  Oh!  what 
an  exliibition  of  stern  and  sublime  justice  is  here.    The 


32  C  H  R  I  S  T     O  U  R 

character  of  God  in  Christ,  displayed  this  attril)iite  in 
the  daily  history  of  his  life ;  but  there  were  no  such 
revelations  of  it  as  in  the  history  of  Jesus,  in  atone- 
ment. To  use  again  our  former  illustration.  Suppose, 
when  I  behold  the  fond  father  inflicting  severe  chas- 
tisement on  the  son  of  his  bosom ;  when  I  see  the  cruel 
scourge  laid  upon  him  in  all  its  fury,  and  his  blood 
flowing  from  the  stripes,  I  am  told  that  it  is  not  for 
his  guilt,  but  that  he  has  oflered  himself  a  ransom  for  a 
guilty  and  disobedient  servant.  A  servant  has  wil- 
fully disobeyed  his  master,  and  incurred  the  penalty 
of  rebellion.  The  authority  of  the  master  is  at  stake. 
He  cannot  forgive  the  servant  at  the  expense  of  that 
authority.  It  would  not  be  right,  or  safe,  or  wise,  to 
do  it.  His  favorite  son  ofl^ers  to  bear  the  punishment 
of  the  servant's  fault.  He  sees  that  an  exhibition 
ought  to  be  made  of  the  fathers  justice  and  holiness; 
that  it  will  not  do  to  allow  such  conduct  to  go  un- 
punished. But  his  kind  heart  yearns  over  the  rebel, 
and  he  oflfers  himself  for  the  punishment  due  to  him. 
The  father,  with  every  flbre  of  his  soul  thrilled  with 
admiration  and  love  for  his  noble  child,  yet  allows  the 
substitution,  and  resolutely  lays  u2:)on  him  the  full 
weight  of  the  terrible  penalty.  Oh !  what  an  exhibi- 
tion of  exalted  justice  in  this?  A¥hat  man  could  ever 
doubt  the  sublime  integrity  of  that  father,  after  such 
an  exhibition?  So  in  the  sufierings  and  death  of 
Christ  for  sinful  man,  what  honor  is  reflected  upon  the 
justice  of  God?  "Who  can  charge  upon  the  Almighty, 
that  he  shrinks  from  the  vindication  of  his  law,  when 
they  see  that  aw^ful  inexorable  law,  breaking  and 
bruising,  and  scathing  and  blasting  that  innocent  Son, 


WISDOM.  33 

who  volunteered  to  be  tlie  substitute  for  the  guilty 
servant  ? 

But  when  w^e  have  seen  and  trembled  at  this  spec- 
tacle, awful  in  its  sublimity;  the  lessons  it  teachct^, 
are  but  half  learned,  if  we  are  not  impressed  to  tlie 
deep  center  of  the  soul,  with  the  fearfulness  of  the 
sinners  position,  who  is  still  unreconciled  to  God.  Oh !     i 
dear  reader,  if  you  wish  to  study  the  guilt  and  danger 
of  every  impenitent  man,  go  not  and  stand  on  Sinai, 
where  the  rolling  thunder  and  the  flashing  lightning 
speak  of  the  terrible  majesty  of  the  law  of  God  ;  but 
study  the  scenes  of  Calvary,  and  see  that  law,  exact- 
ing its  merited  but  fearful  tribute  in  the  tears,  and 
agony,  and  blood  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  then  ask, 
what  must  the  guilt  of  that  man  be,  and  what  must 
his  peril  be,  who,  with  suqIi  a  manifestation  of  the 
evil  of  sin,  and  the  justice  of  God,  still  continues  his 
insane  rebellion,  and  rejects  a  dying  Saviour.     Can     I 
there  be  the  faintest  shadow  of  hope  for  him,  when     ' 
he  falls  at  last  into  the  hands  of  an  angry  God?    Will     ' 
he  who  spared  not  his  son,  when  he  became  the  surety     ; 
for  the  guilty  servant,  spare  that  servant  if  he  con-     | 
tinues  rebellious  ?     Here  then  is  a  lesson,  which  most     \ 
of  all,  man  needs  to  learn,  and  which  is  taught  him     | 
only  by  Christ  in  his  objective  work,  and  cannot  be     I 
learned  by  his  subjective  character.    It  is  the  guilt  of      ; 
sin  and  the  dans^er  of  the  sinner;  these  truths  are     i 
taught  man  by  that  exhibition  of  the  holiness  and  jus-     ! 
tice  of  God,  which  is  made  by   the  suiferings  and     i 
death  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  contemplation  of     i 
his  holy  character  as  an  example,  might  strengthen 
and  confirm  an  angel  in  his  virtue,  but  could  not  con- 


34  C  H  R  I  S  T     O  U  R 

vict  a  sinner  at  the  same  time  of  his  guih  and  danger. 
Man  needs  to  be  taught  his  rehitions  to  the  law  of 
God;  his  actual  position  as  a  rebel,  and  the  awful 
peril  of  that  position.  And  he  needs  a  teacher,  who 
will  speak  in  stern  accents  to  his  guilty  soul ;  who 
will  rouse  him,  if  need  be,  with  no  gentle  hand,  from 
his  unconcern,  and  impress  him  with  an  overwhelm- 
ing sense  of  his  deadly  peril.  I  know  there  are  those 
who  revile  our  view  of  the  work  of  Christ  for  man,  as 
a  harsh  and  forbidding  view ;  who  think  that  all  that 
man  needs  is  a  good  example,  and  that  this  is  all  that  is 
furnished  him  in  the  history  of  our  Divine  Redeemer. 

Tliev  are  the  men  who  are  devotees  of  the  relio'ion  of 

t'  ~ 

nature ;  who  love  to  worship  in  her  forest  temple,  and 
chant  their  sentimental  hymns  under  the  soft  silvery 
radiance  of  the  stars,  and  who  find  in  revelation  only  a 
more  perfect  and  beautiful  exhibition  of  the  God  of 
nature;  a  beneficent  Father,  a  pure  and  gentle  teacher, 
now  only  human,  now  almost  divine,  who  by  his 
winning  examj^le,  and  the  heroism  of  his  martyrdom, 
gently  and  gradually  educes  the  dormant  good  in  hu- 
man nature,  and  In-ings  man  ever  into  sympathy  with 
the  true  and  the  Infinite.  Well  may  they  find  their 
sermons  in  stones;  for  when  you  ask  for  the  bread  of 
life,  they  give  you  a  stone,  and  their  teachings  are  as 
unsatisfying  to  the  spiritual  nature,  which  has  become 
convinced  of  its  deep  necessities,  as  a  block  of  marble 
would  be  to  a  hungry  man,  begging  for  bread.  We 
feel  that  the  disease  of  sin  cannot  be  cured  by  such 
fragrant  but  worthless  balsams.  For  sin  is  not  hypo- 
chondria; it  is  a  real  and  deadly  disease,  and  needs 
the  severest  treatment,  in  order  that  the  moral  system 


WIS!)  O  M  .  35 

may  be  purged  Irom  its  fatal  inliuence.  And  if  it  be 
true  that  "an  unskillful  sculptor  only  spoils  a  block  of 
marble,  but  an  unskillful  physician  spoils  a  man," 
much  more  does  he  who  makes  not  thorough  work 
with  the  sinner,  spoil  forever  an  immortal  soul.  Let 
men  caricature  and  abuse  our  system  as  they  may, 
this  doctrine  of  Christ's  atonement  for  lost  sinners, 
has  always  been  the  power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of 
God  unto  salvation  to  those  that  believe.  Let  them 
complain  that  it  is  a  system  of  thunder  and  of  flame ; 
well  is  it  for  him  who  is  sleeping  in  the  lair  of  the 
lion,  to  be  startled  from  his  repose  by  the  peal  of  the 
thunder;  well  is  it  for  him  who  is  treading  on  the 
verge  of  the  precipice,  to  be  admonished  of  his 
danger  by  the  flash  of  the  lightning. 

But  it  is  a  gross  libel  upon  the  doctrine  that  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  a  sacrifice  for  sin,  that  it  pre- 
sents God  in  a  harsh  and  unlovely  aspect,  and  robs 
him  of  the  more  winning  and  attractive  features  of  his 
character.  This  is  the  chief  glory  of  the  Cross  of 
Christ,  that  in  it  the  holiness,  the  justice,  the  truth 
and  the  love  of  God  are  all  harmoniously  blended,  and 
that  the  one  is  awfully  and  gloriously  manifested  as 
the  other.  In  what  page  of  nature's  book  will  you 
read  of  such  love  as  that  which  is  displayed  in  the 
Gospel  of  Christ.  "What  can  the  deep  blue  sea,  or  tlie 
I  purple  and  gold  of  the  sunset,  or  the  fragrance  of  the 
Yale  of  Shiraz,  or  the  snow-capped  summit  of  Mt. 
Blanc,  tell  of  the  love  of  God  towards  guilty  ruined 
man.  What  can  the  dew-drop  on  the  rose,  speak  of 
that  blessed  quality,  which  "droppcth  like  the  gentle 
dew  from  heaven  ?"     Go  to  any  convicted  soul,  with 


36  C  H  R  I  6  T     O  U  K 

the  burden  of  sin  pressing  wearily  upon  liim,  an 
awakened  conscience  goading  him  to  agony,  tossing 
on  a  troubled  sea  of  fear  and  struggling,  and  wild  soul 
conflict,  quailing  before  the  terrors  of  a  broken  law 
and  an  angry  God ;  and  call  on  all  the  ministries  of 
nature  to  bring  peace  and  hope,  and  rest,  to  that  for- 
lorn and  despairing  soul.  You  call  in  vain.  You 
may  speak  of  sweet  fields,  and  gentle  breezes,  and 
silvery  lakes,  and  quiet  skies  ;  but  he  sees  black  des- 
erts, and  untamed  forests,  and  wailing  blasts,  and 
stormy  oceans,  and  angry  clouds.  He  sees  a  corres- 
pondence between  the  condition  of  his  spirit  and 
these  scenes  in  nature,  and  there  is  no  light,  no  hope, 
no  comfort  in  nature's  revealings.  But  point  him  to 
the  Cross  of  Christ ;  speak  to  him  of  the  atonement, 
the  reconcilement,  which  the  Divine  Saviour  has 
effected  there,  and  while  his  impressions  of  guilt,  and 
helplessness,  and  ill-desert  are  deepened  and  strength- 
ened, yet  there  is  love  as  well  as  holiness ;  there  is 
mercy  as  well  as  justice  there  ;  he  sees  that  God  can 
hate  sin,  and  punish  sin,  yet  love  the  sinner,  and  pro- 
vide salvation  for  him,  without  money  and  without 
price.  Then  it  is  that  the  glorious  revelation  is  made 
to  him  by  Christ  the  wisdom  of  God,  of  the  boundless 
love  of  his  injured  Sovereign ;  then  light  comes  in 
upon  his  soul  from  the  Cross,  "  not  the  pale,  wan  sun- 
shine of  a  winter's  day,  but  the  noontide  flood  of  a 
summer's  glories,  carrying  warmth  and  life  through 
all  the  icy  chambers  of  the  heart." 

Love — love — no  exhibition  of  love  in  the  doctrine 
of  the  atonement?  Then  what  meaning  is  there  in 
those  forms  of  speech,  which  affection  instinctively 


WISDOM.  37 

uses  to  express  its  deepest  intensity,  to  embody  its 
purest  devotion,  when  it  exclaims  to  the  object  of  its 
fond  idolatry,  I  would  suffer  for  thee !  I  would  die 
for  thee !  "What  significance  is  there  in  that  heart 
breaking  lament  of  the  bereaved  monarch  of  Israel, 
''Would  God  I  had  died  for  thee,  O  Absalom,  my 
son,  my  son  !"  What  force  is  there  in  the  reasoning 
of  the  Apostle,  "•  For  scarcely  for  a  righteous  man  w^U 
one  die:  yet  peradventure  for  a  good  man,  some 
would  even  dare  to  die.  But  God  commendeth  his 
love  toward  us,  in  that  while  we  were  yet  sinners 
Christ  died  for  us."  Ah,  no !  though  we  catch  but 
feeble  glimpses  of  the  splendid  revelation  in  this  our 
mortal  and  finite  state,  yet  when  we  devote  to  it  the 
perfected  powers  and  sanctified  affections  of  our  im- 
mortality, we  shall  understand  fully  the  teachings  of 
Christ,  our  atoning  sacrifice  for  sin,  of  the  love  of  God, 
and  celebrate  it  in  the  lofty  anthems  of  eternity,  as  a 
love  that  -was  stronger  than  death. 

The  holiness,  the  justice,  the  love  of  God  ;  the  guilt 
and  danger  of  man,  his  way  of  deliverance  from  bond- 
age to  sin,  and  death  and  hell,  these  are  the  sublime 
and  solemn  revelations  which  Christ,  the  wisdom 
of  God  to  man,  makes  to  the  believer  in  his  aton- 
ing work.  And  what  teacher  but  him  ever  spoke 
to  man  on  these  lofty  themes  ?  What  teacher  ever  so 
changed  and  purified  the  moral  nature  of  his  pupils  ? 
What  teacher  ever  so  opened  the  way  to  peace  and 
blessedness  and  glory  ?  What  teacher  ever  thus  ex- 
alted and  redeemed  his  pupils,  from  every  false  and 
debasing  and  enthralling  influence ;  purged  them 
from  the  dross  of  earth,  and  made  them  fit  for  the 


38  CHRISTOUR 

splendors  of  heaven?  Wherever  in  this  dai-kened 
world  light  has  been  shed  upon  the  excellence  and 
glory  of  the  character  of  God,  that  light  has  come  from 
the  Gospel  of  his  Son.  If  a  poor  sinner  ever  saw  his 
guilt  and  peril,  he  learned  it  at  the  Cross  of  Christ.  If 
any  soul  ever  became  impressed  with  the  value  of  its 
immortality,  and  was  stimulated  to  a  desperate  effort 
to  rescue  it  from  the  dishonors  of  sin,  the  lesson  and 
the  influence  came  from  Christ  the  wisdom  of  God. 
If  any  poor  child  of  Adam  has  felt  within  him  the 
workings  of  a  purer  and  holier  principle,  and  has  been 
made  a  partaker  of  the  life  of  God,  it  has  not  been 
while  admiring  the  scenery  of  the  heavens,  or  study- 
ing the  philosophy  of  earth ;  but  it  has  been,  when 
sitting  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  and  learning  of  him.  And 
that  mind,  however  enriched  with  the  treasures  of 
natural  science,  however  deeply  it  has  drank  at  the 
broken  cisterns  of  earthly  teaching,  must  still  remain 
ignorant  of  the  sublimest  moral  truths,  and  unrefreshed 
in  his  spiritual  being,  to  whom  Christ  has  not  been 
made  the  wisdom  of  God,  the  great  revealer  and 
teacher  of  man.  Go,  then,  dear  readers,  to  the  school 
of  Christ.  Tlie  truths  you  need  most  to  know,  can  be 
taught  you  only  there.  The  truths  you  must  know, 
if  you  would  be  made  wise  unto  salvation,  are  com- 
municated by  no  other  teacher.  And  Christ's  method 
is  not  that  of  theory,  but  of  demonstration.  He  shows 
man  how  far  he  has  fallen,  by  revealing  the  height  from 
which  he  stooped  to  raise  him  up.  He  shows  how 
deep  the  stain  his  sin  has  cast  upon  the  law  of  God, 
by  washing  it  out  in  his  own  blood.  He  shows  the 
terrible  doom  of  the  impenitent,  in  the  horrors  of  his 


WISDOM.  39 

death  for  tlie  penitent  and  believing.  Tliese  are  the 
truths  you  need  to  know,  and  which  you  will  never 
learn  but  from  this  Divine  instructor.  You  may  study 
the  book  of  nature,  and  think  yourself  an  apt  disciple, 
but  from  her  right  pages,  you  will  never  learn  to  read, 
with  agony  and  despair,  the  dark  and  hopeless  record 
of  your  own  sinful  heart.  She  may  make  you  famil- 
iar with  the  stars,  but  can  never  show  you  the  way  to 
the  better  land,  above  their  shining.  She  may  show 
you  the  resurrection  of  the  spring,  but  this  can  never 
teach  you  the  way  to  attain  to  the  resurrection  of  the 
just.  She  may  spread  before  you  the  beauties  of  the 
glowing  summer,  but  under  her  teachings  the  harvest 
will  pass,  the  summer  be  ended,  and  your  soul  will 
not  be  saved.  She  may  call  you  to  behold  the  bril- 
liant coronation  of  the  winter,  yet,  alas  !  those  fleeting, 
icy  splendors,  are  no  type  or  promise  to  you  of  the 
coronation  of  the  saints.  By  nature  ignorant  of  God, 
a  rebel  against  his  law;  condemned,  helpless,  lost; 
whither,  oh  whither  will  you  go,  dear  reader,  for  in- 
struction, for  light,  for  pardon,  for  redemption  ?  Jesus 
saith,  "  I  am  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life."  And 
a  voice  from  heaven,  rising  above  all  the  melodies  of 
nature,  and  the  stammering  articulations  of  human 
philosophy  exclaims  with  a  divine  energy,  "Awake 
thou  that  sleepest,  and  arise  from  the  dead,  and  Chris'i' 
shall  give  thee  Light." 


III. 

RIGHTEOUSNESS 


EJE  who  Las  been  taught  by  Christ,  the  wisdom  of 
God,  his  own  guilt  and  peril  as  a  sinner,  asks  eagerly 
for  further  revelations.  His  first  lesson  of  his  own 
state  and  prospects,  is  one  that  must  fill  him  Avith 
anguish  and  despair.  He  has  learned  that  he  is  a  sin- 
ner, against  a  holy  God,  and  that  the  fearful  doom  of 
the  sinner  is  impending  over  him.  He  now  asks, 
"Can  I  escape  tliis  doom?"  How  can  I  be  forgiven? 
As  natui-e  could  not  teach  him  his  first  lesson  of  sin, 
neither  can  she  teach  the  second  lesson  of  salvation. 
He  must  have  another  and  a  better  teacher,  and  such 
is  provided  for  him.  He  who  is  made  by  God  his  wis- 
dom, to  teach  him  in  his  personal  character,  and  his 
atoning  work,  God's  holiness,  justice,  and  love,  and 
his  own  guilt  and  danger,  is  also  made  his  righteous- 
ness; to  justify  his  gnilty  soul,  and  make  it  consistent 
with  the  character  and  government  of  God,  to  pardon 
his  sin  and  deliver  him  from  his  danger.  Man's  case 
would  be  a  sad  one,  if  when  he  had  been  made  pro- 

40 


RIGHTEOUSNESS.  4:1 

foundly  sensible  of  his  own  lost  condition,  and  over- 
whelmed with  the  agony  and  desj^air  of  such  a  con- 
sciousness, no  further  revelation  could  he  made  to 
him,  of  any  method  of  recovery  from  the  ruin  in 
which  he  found  himself  involved;  if  no  ray  of  light 
could  break  in  upon  his  darkened  soul;  no  voice  of 
cheering,  speak  in  hopeful  accents  to  his  spiritual  ear. 
But  he  whose  Gosj^el  has  taught  him  his  danger,  also 
teaches  him  his  refuge.  In  that  Gospel,  his  bane  and 
antidote,  are  both  before  him.  While  on  the  one 
hand  it  paints  his  guilt  and  helplessness  in  the  darkest 
colors,  it  reveals  on  the  other  a  mantle  of  perfect 
righteousness,  which  can  forever  hide  it  from  the  eye 
of  an  angry  God;  and  it  assures  him,  that  on  a  sim- 
ple condition,  that  mantle  may  become  his  own,  and 
arrayed  in  it,  he  need  not  fear  to  tread  even  the  pres- 
ence chamber  of  a  holy  God.  This  is  the  second  feat- 
ure in  which  the  Gospel  represents  Christ,  as  necessary 
and  precious  to  man.  First,  in  his  ignorance,  he  needs 
a  teacher  to  convince  him  of  sin.  Christ  is  made  his 
instructor,  and  teaches  him  by  demonstration.  That 
sad  lesson  learned,  then  he  needs  some  further  revela- 
tion. The  second  feature  in  his  case  is  guilt,  just 
exposure  to  punishment  for  violation  of  law.  To  this 
Christ  his  rigliteousness  responds,  and  reveals  the 
method  of  his  justification. 

The  term  rigliteousness,  in  the  text,  may  be  ren- 
dered justification,  and  the  passage  opens  to  our  con- 
sideration, that  simple  yet  sublime  doctrine,  which 
was  the  key  note  of  the  glorious  Reformation,  and 
wliicli  the  great  Itcformer  styled,  "the  article  of  a 
standing  or  a  falling  Cliurch,"  the  doctrine  of  Justifi- 


42  C  II  R  I  S  J^      OUR 

cation  by  Faith.  Christ,  as  the  author  of  our  justifi- 
cation, is  before  us  now ;  and  in  him,  as  represented 
by  this  passage,  we  find  an  answer  to  that  inquiry 
Avhich  earth  has  re-echoed  ever  since  the  apostacy,  in 
every  form  of  earnest  and  agonizing  beseeching;  whicli 
she  has  inscribed  on  every  altar  of  every  faith;  whicli 
has  been  written  in  tears,  and  in  bh)od,  on  all  her 
temples.  "How  shall  man  be  just  with  God?"  And 
who  can  estimate  the  sublime  importance  of  this  en- 
quiry. Time,  fleeting,  changing,  dying  time,  cannot 
comprehend  its  import.  The  unfathomable  depths 
of  eternity  alone  can  reveal  it.  Dear  reader,  when 
a  hundred  years  have  passed  away,  of  what  conse- 
quence will  those  things  be  to  you,  on  which  you  are 
expending  the  ardor  and  earnestness  of  your  being 
now?  It  will  be  of  no  interest  to  you  then,  that  you 
were  the  owner  of  millions,  or  wore  the  diadem  of  a 
king,  or  drained  every  cup  of  pleasure  or  of  love. 
But  it  will  be  of  immense,  of  never-ceasing  interest  to 
you,  to  be  made  just  and  holy  in  the  sight  of  God ;  to 
have  the  stain  of  sin  purged  out  of  your  soul;  to  be 
redeemed  from  the  anathema  of  a  holy  and  inexorable 
law,  and  admitted  to  walk  in  white  in  the  radiant 
palaces  of  God.  Christ,  thus  as  the  righteousness  of 
man;  Christ,  the  justifier  of  the  sinner,  is  worthy  of 
the  instant,  earnest,  all  absorbing  attention  of  every 
creature  of  God,  to  whom  he  has  been  revealed. 

In  our  consideration  of  this  subject,  it  will  be  well 
for  us  to  have  a  definite  idea  of  the  meaning  of  the 
word  justification.  This  is  a  forensic  term,  and  it 
means  the  pronouncing  a  person  free  from  any  liabili- 
ty to  the  penalty  of  law.     It  is  just  the  opposite 


RIGHTEOUSNESS.  43 

of  condemnation,  and  is  thus  used  in  many  places  in 
tlie  Word  of  God.  It  is  not  pardon.  Pardon  is  the 
remission  of  a  penalty  which  has  been  justly  incurred, 
and  is  an  exercise  of  mercy  toward  a  proved  and  ac- 
knowledged offender.  It  implies  guilt,  or  liability  to 
the  penalty  of  a  law  broken.  Justilication,  on  the 
other  hand,  implies  no  such  liability,  and  pronounces 
the  person  free  from  any  rightful  exposure  to  punish- 
ment. K  a  man  is  charged  with  a  crime,  and  the  evi- 
dence does  not  substantiate  the  charge,  the  verdict  of 
acquittal  justifies  the  man,  and  declares  him  free  from 
any  liability  to  penal  suflering.  If,  on  the  contrary, 
he  is  proved  gnilty  of  the  crime  charged,  and  sentenc- 
ed, and  afterwards  pardoned,  the  act  of  pardon  does 
not  jnstity  him — does  not  say  that  he  did  not  deserve 
punishment ;  but  simply,  in  the  exercise  of  mercy,  re- 
mits the  penalty  which  was  confessedly  deserved. 
Now  the  necessity  of  a  man's  justification,  who  is 
charged  with  a  crime  before  a  tribunal,  either  of  law 
or  of  public  opinion,  lies  in  the  fact  that  he  is  under 
law,  and  is  charged  with  being  a  violator  of  law.  And 
in  order  to  his  justification,  he  must  show,  either  that 
the  law  alleged  to  have  been  violated  by  him,  did  not 
apply  to  him,  or  that  he  did  not  violate  it  in  any  par- 
ticular. A  man  might  plead,  if  arraigned  for  a  viola- 
tion of  laws  intended  to  apply  only  to  aliens,  that  h<- 
was  a  citizen,  and  that  the  law  in  question  had  n«> 
claims  upon  him,  and  therefore,  while  he  acknowledg- 
ed having  committed  the  act  charged,  justified  him- 
self by  the  plea  that  the  law  had  no  jurisdiction  over 
him,  which  would  be  a  valid  plea.  But  if  he  were 
charged  with  a  breach  of  law  which  did  apply  to 


4A  CHRIST     OUE 

liim,  tlien  liis  only  metliod  of  justification  wonld  be, 
to  prove  liis  entire  innocence  of  the  act  charged  upon 
liim.  If  successful  in  this,  his  justification  is  complete. 
But  unless  he  can  establish  his  innocence  perfectly, 
he  cannot  be  justified.  All  law  demands  perfect  obe- 
dience. It  is  in  its  nature  immutable  and  inexorable. 
It  admits  of  no  compromise.  It  simply  and  sternly 
issues  its  mandates,  and  says :  Obey  and  thou  shalt  be 
justified.  Disobey,  but  once,  and  thou  shalt  be  con- 
demned. 

It  is  from  the  application  of  these  well  known  prin- 
ciples to  man,  in  his  relations  to  God,  that  we  discov- 
er the  necessity  of  justification  on  his  part.  Man  is  a 
being  under  law.  He  is  the  creature  of  God,  made  by 
him,  sustained  by  him,  and  accountable  to  him. 
The  law  of  God  is  the  foundation  of  all  law.  It  is  per- 
fectly right,  just,  and  good,  for  it  is  the  embodiment 
of  the  immutable  principle  of  rectitude — the  founda- 
tion of  the  throne  of  God.  In  its  spirit  and  its  letter 
it  is  perfectly  holy,  and  commends  itself  to  every  en- 
lightened conscience.  It  is  a  comprehensive  law. 
Spiritual  in  its  nature,  and  extending  its  scepter  over 
all  spiritual  existence,  it  cannot  be  satisfied  by  a  mere 
external  or  pliysical  obedience.  It  demands  the  con- 
formity of  man's  interior,  or  spiritual  life.  For  instance, 
a  man  who  covets  his  neighbor's  goods,  is  as  much  a 
violator  of  the  law  of  God,  in  its  relations  to  the  crime 
of  theft,  as  is  he  a  violator  of  the  laws  of  men,  who 
actually  robs  his  neighbor  of  his  purse.  And  the  rea- 
son is,  that  covetousness  is  the  principle  of  theft,  with- 
out which  the  crime  could  have  no  existence.  He, 
also,  who  hates  his  neighbor  in  his  heart  with  a  mal- 


RIGHTEOUSNESS.  4") 

ignaiit  enmity,  is  as  mncli  a  murderer  in  the  sight  of 
God's  hiw,  as  is  he  by  human  law,  who  in  the  dead 
liour  of  midnight  phmges  the  dagger  into  tlie  heart 
of  his  unconscious  victim.  Hate  is  the  principle  of 
murder,  and  by  a  spiritual  law,  recognized  as  the 
crime. 

Man,  originally  a  holy  being,  and  as  such,  capable 
of  yielding  a  perfect  obedience  to  this  pure,  spiritual, 
and  comprehensive  law  of  God,  is  now  in  a  fallen 
state,  a  state  of  guilt  and  condemnation,  as  a  violator 
of  this  law.  He  is  arraigned  before  the  tribunal,  and 
is  called  upon  to  plead.  The  Word  of  God  has  pro- 
nounced him  guilty,  and  his  own  conscience  confirms 
the  condemnatory  verdict  of  the  revelation  of  God.  I 
assume  that  no  man  of  intelligence  and  candor,  can 
possibly  take  the  law  of  God,  and  compare  himself 
with  it,  without  acknowledging  that  he  is  guilty  of 
numberless  violations  of  that  law,  in  thought,  word 
and  deed.  Let  the  purest  moralist  weigh  himself  in 
those  heavenly  adjusted  scales,  and  his  own  hand  must 
write  against  himself,  "Tekel,  thou  are  weighed  in  the 
balances,  and  art  found  wanting."  'No  man,  who  would 
be  considered  as  possessing  common  honesty  or  com- 
mon sense,  would  venture  to  assert  that  he  was  not 
conscious  of  a  single  sin  against  the  law  of  God.  Why, 
the  universal  posture  of  the  human  race,  since  the 
apostacy,  has  been  one  of  conscious  guilt,  and  depre- 
cation of  the  wrath  of  Deity.  Every  plain  lu\s  had 
its  altar ;  every  mountain  its  shrine ;  every  grove  its 
sacrifice ;  the  rights  of  every  nation  have  spoken 
of  guilt,  atonement  and  intercession.  They  have 
spoken  of  sin  committed,  God  offended,  punishment 


46  CHKISTOUR 

deserved,  and  misery  apprehended.  The  confessions 
and  sacrifices,  the  penances  and  prayers,  of  all  kin- 
dreds and  nations  and  tribes,  over  tlie  whole  earth, 
rise  together,  and  blending  in  one  sad  chorus,  mingle 
with  the  moaning  of  the  winds,  and  the  ravings  of  the 
storm ;  and  the  burden  of  the  whole  is.  Sin !  Remorse ! 
Condemnation !  Death ! 

This,  then,  is  man's  position  before  God.  Under  a 
holy,  just  and  good  law — a  law  not  one  statute  of  which 
can  ever  be  repudiated  by  an  enlightened  conscience, 
he  is  arraigned,  and  charged  with  innumerable  instan- 
ces of  its  violation.  He  must  be  justified,  or  the  awful 
penalty  of  that  law  must  come  down  upon  him  and 
crush  him.  Can  he  be  justified  or  acquitted  legally  ? 
'No !  lie  cannot  plead  that  the  law  is  not  binding 
upon  him.  It  was  given  to  him — it  is  adapted  to  his 
nature.  That  nature,  in  its  best  and  purest  state,  re- 
sponds to  it,  and  his  conscience  reproves  him  for  diso- 
bedience to  it. 

Can  he  plead  innocence  ?  This  question  has  been 
abeady  answered.  If  his  whole  life  had  shown  but 
one  instance  of  sin,  this  plea  would  be  vitiated. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  law  itself,  which  forbids  the 
justification  of  man  on  the  score  of  his  own  obedience. 
Adam,  before  he  fell,  could  have  been  thus  justified. 
The  commandment  is  holy,  just  and  good,  but  man 
is  unholy,  and  unjust  and  bad.  Therefore  it  is,  "  that 
by  the  deeds  of  the  law  no  flesh  can  be  justified,  for 
by  the  law  is  the  knowledge  of  sin." 

There  is  then  no  possible  way  of  legal  justification 
for  man.  He  is  condemned  by  the  law  of  God,  which 
says,  "  Tlie  soul  that  sinneth  it  shall  die."    But  it  may 


RIGHTEOUSNESS.  47 

be  asked,  suppose  man  should  repent  of  his  sins,  and 
seek  the  forgiveness  of  his  offended  God,  could  he  not 
be  forgiven  ?  We  answer,  no  ;  because  pardon  is  not 
justification,  and  no  good  ruler  will  or  can  exercise 
mercy  at  the  expense  of  justice.  Man  has  sinned  ;  by 
sin  he  has  invaded  the  eternal  principles  of  moral  rec- 
titude, and  he  cannot  be  forgiven  at  the  expense  of 
right  and  truth.  But  our  reader  may  say,  "  I  can  for- 
give a  man  who  has  injured  me,  if  he  be  penitent. 
Will  you  limit  the  exercise  of  God's  mercy,  and  shut 
him  up  to  a  rigid  administration  of  law,  and  debar 
him  the  precious  privilege  of  forgiving  enemies,  which 
is  afforded  to  us  ?"  I  answer,  you  cannot  always  for- 
give your  enemy,  even  if  he  be  penitent.  You  may 
be  able,  and  you  ought  in  all  cases,  to  free  your  mind 
of  personal  vindictiveness  or  animosity  against  him, 
but  it  depends  entirely  upon  the  nature  of  the  relation 
you  sustain  to  him,  and  how  that  relation  is  affected 
by  his  offence,  whether  you  may  let  him  go  unpun- 
ished. A  private  injury  between  man  and  man  may 
be  allowed  to  pass  unpunished,  but  if  there  is  any 
public  relation  which  has  been  violated  or  assailed, 
you  cannot  forgive  the  offender ;  and  if  you  do  it,  you 
yourself  are  an  offender  against  the  principles  of 
moral  rectitude.  If  you  are  a  ruler,  you  are  bound  to 
administer  the  law,  and  execute  its  penalty  upon 
every  real  offender.  And  if  you  allow  yourself  to  be 
seduced  from  a  faithful  performance  of  your  duty  in 
this  respect,  by  your  natural  compassion,  or  the  plead- 
ings of  a  false  benevolence,  which  cares  more  for  the 
criminal  than  the  crime,  and  is  more  moved  by  the 
murderer's  remorseful   terrors,   than    by   the   blood 


48  '         OHRI8TOUR 

which  crieth  out  from  the  ground  against  him,  you 
are  not  a  just  ruler ;  you  are  not  a  wise  ruler ;  you 
are  not  a  benevolent  ruler ;  and  the  interests  of  socie- 
ty are  not  safe  in  your  hands.  The  judge  cannot 
forgive  the  murderer  clearly  convicted  of  his  crime, 
though  he  may  have  the  sincerest  pity  for  his  hapless 
case.  The  executive  cannot  pardon  him  if  he  be  fairly 
convicted ;  and  the  many  instances  in  which  the  par- 
doning power  has  been  shamefully  abused  in  our 
country,  have  almost  made  our  criminal  law  a  dead 
letter,  and  the  solemnities  of  our  tribunals  a  meaning- 
less farce. 

l^either  can  the  sinner  be  justified  by  any  goodness 
of  his  own — any  works  of  obedience  which  he  may 
render  to  the  law;  for  obedience  to  every  statute, 
from  the  commencement  of  accountable  existence, 
was  always  his  duty,  and  the  performance  of  duty  at 
one  time,  can  never  atone  for  its  neglect  at  another. 
The  murderer  at  an  earthly  tribunal,  cannot  plead  that 
he  will  never  again  commit  the  dreadful  crime  which 
has  stained  his  hands  with  blood,  and  his  soul  with 
guilt.  Were  his  life  for  its  remaining  years,  a  life  of 
peace  and  honesty,  still  would  the  law  claim  its  pen- 
alty, and  the  blood  of  his  victim  cry  out  from  the 
ground  against  him.  The  performance  of  duty  has 
no  atoning  power.  There  is  no  merit  in  a  man's  do- 
ing that  which  he  is  obliged  to  do,  and  there  is  no 
possibility  of  any  creature  of  God's  exceeding  in  his 
devotion,  the  limit  of  his  obligation.  When  we  have 
done  all  that  we  can  do  for  him,  we  must  still  say, 
we  are  unprofitable  servants.  We  have  only  done 
that  which  it  was  our  duty  to  do. 


K  I  u  11  r  K  c)  u  8  X  l;  8  s  .  49 

Tliere  is  clearlv,  then,  no  ground  whatever  in 
man's  case  for  legal  jnstiiication  before  God.  The 
only  methods  by  which  such  justiiication  can  be  se- 
cured by  law,  are  impossible  in  his  case.  He  cannot 
plead  exemption  from  the  law,  nor  innocence  of  its 
violation.  His  penitential  tears  cannot  wash  out  the 
record  of  sin  and  condemnation,  neither  can  obedience 
to  come,  atone  for  past  rebellion.  He  is  condemned 
to  suffer  the  dreadful  penalty,  justly  condemned ;  and, 
60  far  as  he  is  concerned,  hopelessly  condemned. 

But  is  there  no  way  by  which  man  may  be  rescued 
from  this  fearful  position?  If  he  cannot  justify  him- 
self; if  he  cannot  meet  his  liabilities  to  the  law  of 
God,  and  satisfy  the  claims  of  justice,  cannot  some 
one  be  found,  in  the  wide  universe  of  God,  possessing 
the  ability  and  the  willingness  to  ransom  him  from 
the  grasp  of  the  law,  by  doing  that  for  him  which  he 
cannot  do  for  himself,  so  that  the  law  may  be  satis- 
fied, and  the  eternal  barrier  w^hich  it  interposes  to  the 
exercise  of  merey,  be  forever  removed?  Ah!  this  is 
the  great  question,  which  never  could  have  been  an- 
swered, but  by  the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God.  Go  ask 
of  nature,  how  can  man  be  just  with  God,  and  listen 
for  a  reply.  The  moaning  w^nd  may  pour  its  sad  dir- 
ges around  his  dwelling,  but  there  is  no  hope — no 
cheering  in  its  melancholy  music.  The  earthquake's 
shock — the  ocean  storm — the  tornado's  blast — the  liffht- 
iiing's  fiery  flood — the  crashing  avalanche — the  black 
forest — the  dreary  desert,  of  what  do  all  these  speak, 
but  of  wrath,  and  malediction,  and  blighting,  and 
death?  Go  ask  the  angels.  How  can  man  be  just  with 
God,  and  they  will  point  you  to  those  vacant  thrones^ 


50  C  H  K  I  S  T      O  U  R 

and  voiceless  harps,  which  were  once  tilled  and  tuned 
by  their  fallen  companions;  and  what  say  these,  but, 
"The  soul  that  sinneth  it  shall  die."  Roam  through 
all  the  universe  of  God;  tell  of  the  pitiable  state  of 
man — his  guilt — his  danger,  and  with  a  trumpet  blast, 
whose  voice  shall  sweep  around  the  outskirts  of  inter- 
minable space,  ask,  "Is  there  no  hope  for  man?"  and 
the  slow  aud  sullen  echo  shall  come  back  and  strike 
in  dismal  accents  on  your  ear,  "No  hope  for  man." 

Turn  we  then  to  that  fuller  and  sublime  revelation 
which  is  made  in  the  Gospel,  and  the  momentous  in- 
quiry, "How  shall  man  be  just  with  God?"  finds  at 
once  an  answer.  Christ  Jesus  is  made  of  God,  unto 
us  righteousness.  This  is  what  man  needs — a  justify- 
ing righteousness,  and  this  is  afforded  him  only  by 
Christ. 

To  understand  fully  this  important  subject,  theo- 
logians are  accustomed  to  use  illustrations  drawn  from 
human  law.  When  law  has  demands  against  an  in- 
dividual, the  principle  of  justice  is  violated,  if  those 
demands  are  not  complied  with  by  him,  or  for  him. 
And  if  the  satisfaction  be  rendered  by  another,  it 
mnst  be  the  same  in  kind  and  in  degree  which  it 
was  incumbent  on  the  man  himself  to  render.  ]N^o 
man  can  be  a  surety  for  another,  who  has  not  the 
ability  to  meet  the  demands  which  the  law  has  against 
his  principal.  I  owe  ten  thousand  dollars.  I  am  not 
able  to  pay.  The  law  lays  its  strong  arm  upon  me, 
threatens  to  tear  me  from  my  home  and  family,  and 
shut  me  up  forever  in  a  dreary  prison.  That  money 
must  be  paid  hy  me,  or  it  must  be  paid  for  me,  or  I 
must  go  to  prison.     There  is  no  hardship  here.     The 


RIGHTEOUSNESS.  51 

law  is  not  in  tault.  It  is  necessary  for  the  protection 
and  well-being  of  society,  that  the  law  of  debt  should 
be  stringent,  and  rigidly  enforced.  I  cannot  pay  the 
debt.  My  sorrow  will  not  pay  it.  My  abstaining 
from  contracting  debt  in  future  will  not  pay  it.  Ten 
thousand  dollars  must  be  paid  by  me,  or  for  me,  or  I 
am  ruined.  I  try  to  find  a  friend  who  will  pay  this 
sum  for  me.  I  go  to  my  father,  and  implore  him  to 
save  me  from  a  dungeon.  AVith  tears  of  parental 
fondness  in  his  eyes,  he  exclaims,  alas !  my  son,  I  have 
not  a  tenth  of  that  sum.  Take  all  I  have,  but  it  will 
not  avail.  Here  is  willingness,  but  not  ability.  I  go 
to  my  neighbor  with  my  sad  tale.  He  tells  me,  "I 
owe  the  same  amount  and  I  cannot  pay  my  own  debts, 
and  if  I  had  the  means  I  would  not  pay  yours."  Here 
is  neither  willingness  or  ability.  I  make  one  more 
effort.  I  go  to  a  wealthy '  individual  and  ask  his  aid. 
He  has  the  money,  but  he  harshly  rebukes  me  for  my 
imprudence  or  extravagance,  and  tells  me  that  I  de- 
serve to  suffer.  Here  is  ability  without  inclination,  and  I 
have  as  yet  found  no  deliverer.  At  last  I  find  a  gener- 
ous friend,  who  owes  nothing  himself,  is  fully  able  to 
advance  the  requisite  amount,  and  entirely  willing  to 
make  the  sacrifice.  Now  I  can  be  free  from  the  grasp 
of  the  law;  not  that  I  am  able  to  satisfy  its  demands, 
but  I  have  found  a  surety  whom  my  creditor  accepts, 
and  who  places  himself  in  my  stead,  assumes  my 
obligation,  discharges  the  claim,  and  sets  me  free.  But 
though  free,  I  am  not  independent  of  the  law  in  future. 
It  is  still  to  be  my  rule  of  life ;  and  gratitude  to  my 
benefactor,  who  honored  the  law  in  my  stead,  will 
give  it  fresh  claims  upon  my  future  regard. 


52  <^  H  F^  T  S  T      (>  U  K 

With  tliis  familiar  illustration,  let  us  turn  to  our 
relations  to  the  law  of  God.  What  are  the  things  the 
law  requires  at  our  hands?  They  are  two:  sufiering 
for  disobedience,  inr  we  have  already  incurred  the 
penalty,  and  perfect  obedience,  in  order  to  secure  the 
promised  reward.  But  we  cannot  answer  this  double 
demand  of  the  law.  We  might  endure  the  penalty, 
but  this  could  not  take  the  place  of  obedience,  and 
secure  for  us  a  title  to  the  reward  which  is  promised 
to  those  who  have  never  sinned.  Penal  suffering  can 
never  be  meritorious  suffering.  Transgression  not 
only  exposes  us  to  suffering,  but  forever  vitiates  all 
claim  to  reward.  Therefore,  in  order  that  we  may  be 
justified,  we  must  find  one  who  can  save  us  from  the 
penalty,  by  enduring  it  in  our  stead,  and  can  purchase 
for  us  the  reward,  by  a  perfect  obedience,  which  may 
be  placed  to  our  account.  -And  not  only  so,  but  we 
must  find  one  who  will  be  willing  as  well  as  able,  in 
the  sense  of  adequate  mei-it,  and  who  will  have  the 
right  to  become  our  surety  to  the  law  of  God. 

Now  search  the  universe,  and  where  but  in  Christ, 
will  such  a  being  be  found.  Man  cannot  be  the  surety 
for  his  fellow,  for  he  owes  more  than  he  can  pay,  and 
being  in  the  same  condemnation,  is  utterly  powerless 
as  a  surety.  Angels  might  have  the  inclination,  but 
they  owe  as  much  to  God's  law  as  they  can  pay,  and 
their  perfect  obedience  has  no  merit  in  it  that  can  be 
set  over  to  the  account  of  another.  Gabriel  has  not  a 
grain  of  holiness  above  that  which  God  requires  of 
him,  so  that  he  could  not  intercede  for  a  solitary  mor- 
tal, on  the  ground  of  any  merit  of  his  own.  Devils 
have  neither  ability  or  inclination.  Xo  one  is  left  but 


RIGHTEOUSNESS.  53 

God,  and  God  in  Christ  alone  is  the  righteousness,  or 
justification  of  the  sinner.  He  has  perfect  ability  and 
entire  liberty,  and  complete  willingness  to  satisfy  tlie 
demand  of  the  law.  It  demands  a  perfect  righteous- 
ness. No  stain  rests  on  the  fame  of  Jesus.  lie  is 
the  only  perfect  character  which  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  From  his  birth  to  his  death,  he  obeyed  every 
precept  of  the  divine  law,  in  his  inner  and  outer  life. 
He  not  only  performed  every  requirement,  but  he  ab- 
stained from  every  thing  forbidden.  "The  eye  of  a 
holy  God  saw  in  him  no  sin,  original  or  actual; 
neither  of  omission,  or  of  commission  ;  neither  in 
the  secret  purposes  and  imaginations  of  the  heart, 
nor  in  his  external  conduct  and  conversation. 
Whatever  the  law  enjoined  upon  man,  that  he 
performed;  thus  rendering  an  obedience,  such  as 
man  had  failed  to  perform."  Thus  the  first  requisite 
to  justification,  viz :  perfect  obedience,  is  found  in 
Christ,  the  surety  for  sinners,  and  he  is  thus  "made 
of  God  unto  us  righteousness."  But  the  perfect  obe- 
dience of  Christ  implied  penal  sufifering  also.  It  was 
an  obedience  unto  death,  unto  a  cursed,  shameful, 
awful  death ;  even  the  death  of  the  Cross.  This  Christ 
endured,  as  the  surety  for  sinful  man.  He  bore  their 
sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree.  He  was  made  a 
curse  for  them,  that  he  might  deliver  them  from 
the  curse  of  the  law.  His  sufferings  were  penal ;  not 
that  he  was  personally  guilty,  but  by  his  assumption 
of  the  guilt  of  his  peoj)le,  the  law  looked  upon  him  as 
guilty,  and  exacted  of  him  the  fearful  penalty.  I 
know  it  is  objected,  that  Christ  could  not  endure  the 
penalty  of  the  law,  which  sinners  must  have  endured. 


54  (^  H  R  I  S  T      OUR 

inasmuch  as  he  was  incapable  of  remorse  or  despair,  or 
of  eternal  sufferings,  which  are  the  portion  of  the  un- 
godly. But  they  who  present  this  objection,  seem  to 
lose  sight  of  the  infinite  capacities  of  suffering  which 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  possessed.  It  may  be  that  those 
mysterious  and  appalling  agonies,  which  wrung  out 
the  bloody  sweat  from  the  Redeemer's  brow  in  Geth- 
seniane,  and  embittered  his  soul,  even  to  death,  on 
Calvary,  had  they  been  inflicted  upon  a  mere  man, 
would  have  been  eternally  crashing  and  overwhelm- 
ing. Who  wdll  dare  to  limit  or  describe  the  exact 
nature  and  extent  of  the  Redeemer's  sufferings  ?  They 
were  in  the  place  of  those  which  man  would  have  endur- 
ed, and  considering  who  it  was  who  suffered,  who  shall 
say  that  the  reproach  of  his  life,  and  the  agonies  of 
his  death,  were  not  in  him  fully  equal  to  an  eternity 
of  suffering,  such  as  that  of  which  mere  mortals  are 
capable  ?  And  the  sufl^ering  of  remorse  was  not  pos- 
sible in  the  nature  of  things,  nor  necessary  to  the 
Redeemer's  making  a  full  satisfaction  to  the  law.  For 
though  he  suffered  for  the  guilty,  he  was  guiltless 
himself,  and  therefore  could  not  feel  remorse.  You 
may  have  committed  a  crime  against  the  laws  of  your 
country,  and  you  may  feel  the  deepest  remorse  for 
your  conduct.  Influenced  by  affection  for  you,  I  vol- 
unteer to  suffer  the  penalty  in  your  stead.  The  gov- 
ernment accepts  me,  and  inflicts  the  same  punish- 
ment upon  me,  which  you  had  incurred.  I  suffer  the 
exact  penalty  and  satisfy  the  law,  but  I  cannot  feel 
remorse  for  the  crime. 

Christ,  then,  by  his  perfect  obedience,  and  his  en- 
dui-ance  of  the  penalty  of  the  law,  satisfies  the  justice 


R  I  G  11  T  E  O  U  S  N  E  S  S  .  55 

of  God,  iiiid  furnishes  a  ground  of  justiiication  for  man, 
and  thus  becomes  his  righteousness.  God  can  now 
be  just,  and  yet  justify  the  sinner  who  believes  in 
Christ,  and  chooses  him  as  his  surety.  The  perfect 
righteousness  of  Christ  is  imputed  to  him,  just  as  his 
sin  was  imputed  to  Christ;  and  on  account  of  this 
righteousness,  thus  passed  to  his  credit,  to  use  a  com- 
mercial term,  he  is  regarded  as  free  from  his  liability 
to  punishment;  and  while  he  is  not  exonerated  from 
obligation  to  obey  the  law,  is  forever  released  from 
its  terrible  condemnation. 

This  imputation  of  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  does 
not  imply  the  transfer  of  his  personal  acts  to  us,  so 
that  they  become  ours,  or  of  his  moral  character  to 
us,  which  is  impossible  in  the  nature  of  things.  It  is 
simply  a  change  in  our  relations  to  the  law.  Our  lia- 
bility to  punishment  is  taken  away,  by  the  obedience 
and  sujffering  of  our  surety  in  our  stead ;  and  though 
we  were  sinners,  justly  exposed  to  condemnation,  yet 
for  the  sake  of  what  Christ  has  done,  we  are  con- 
sidered and  treated  as  if  we  were  righteous,  just  as 
Christ,  though  sinless  himself  was,  for  our  sake,  con- 
sidered and  treated  as  if  lie  were  a  sinner.  The  whole 
doctrine  is  contained  in  this  passage  :  "For  he  hath 
made  him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who  knew  no  sin  ;  that  we 
might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him." 
2  Cor.  5  :  21. 

There  is  yet  one  more  element  in  the  plan  of  justifi- 
cation through  the  merits  of  Christ,  which  is  essential 
to  the  completeness  of  the  scheme.  It  is  the  mode 
by  which  this  righteousness  of  Christ  becomes  avail- 
able for  each  individual  who  is  saved.     This  mode  is 


56  C  H  R  I  S  T      O  U  R 

hj  faith.  "Therefore  being  justified  hj  faith,  we. 
have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."* 
"The  just  shall  live  hj faith.^^  f  What  then  is  the  re- 
lation of  faith  to  justification  ?  It  is  not  the  ground, 
that  is  the  obedience  and  sufi'erings  of  Christ.  It  is 
not  the  condition,  in  the  sense  of  a  meritorious  con- 
sideration, on  which  salvation  is  suspended.  But  it 
is  the  instrument  of  our  justification.  A  man  is  starv- 
ing for  want  of  food.  A  supply  is  furnished  and  of- 
fered. He  reaches  out  his  hand,  takes  the  food,  eats 
and  lives.  What  is  faith  here  ?  It  is  not  the  provid- 
ing the  food.  That  is  the  fruit  of  benevolence  on  the 
part  of  him  who  provides.  It  is  not  the  food  itself. 
It  is  not  the  relief  consequent  upon  the  repast.  It  is 
the  hand  which  is  extended  to  take  the  food  gracious- 
ly provided,  freely  ofiPered;  and  w^hen  taken,  the 
means  of  life  and  comfort.  In  vain  the  love  which 
provided  the  food  ;  in  vain  the  price  it  cost ;  in  vain 
its  offer,  unless  the  hand  of  the  starving  man  is  extend- 
ed to  receive  it.  Faith  is  the  instrument  of  justifi- 
cation, the  hand  which  seizes  the  bread  of  life,  the 
manna  in  the  wilderness  of  sin,  provided  by  a  benevo- 
lent God,  and  purchased  by  the  tears,  the  agonies, 
and  the  blood  of  his  own  dear  Son.  Without  such 
a  faith,  salvation  is  impossible.  Christ's  death  is  un- 
availing for  your  justification,  dear  reader,  except 
you  believe.  He  never  died  for  you,  if  you  have  no 
faith  in  him.  And  call  not  your  mere  intellectual 
assent  to  his  history,  evangelical  faith.  You  may  go 
down  to  hell  with  such  a  faith  in  lively  exercise. 

*  Romans,  5:1.    t  Romans,  1 :  17. 


R  I  G  H  T  IC  O  U  S  N  K  S  S  .  67 

Yours  must  be  the  desperate  grasp  of  the  starvhig 
man  at  the  food  which  can  save  his  life — the  death 
gripe  of  the  drowning  wretch,  at  the  rope  wliich  can 
save  him  from  destruction. 

And  now,  behold  the  beauty  and  propriety  of  this 
feature  of  Christ's  mission  and  work,  in  the  order  of 
that  work.  First,  wisdom ;  then,  righteousness.  First, 
instruction  as  to  the  guilt  and  danger  of  the  sinner ; 
then,  provision  for  his  pardon,  justification,  and  deliv- 
erance. Christ  the  righteousness  is  as  precious  to  the 
soul  as  Christ  the  wisdom. 

His  office  as  a  justifying  Saviour,  equally  with  that  of 
an  enlightening  Saviour,  is  one  indispensable  to  man, 
and  one  which  no  other  revelation  ever  discloses, 
but  the  revelation  of  the  God  incarnate.  To  the  soul 
convinced  of  sin,  and  struggling  to  find  a  way  of  par- 
don, there  is  not  a  voice  in  all  the  harmonies  of  nature 
which  can  whisper  peace.  Among  all  the  arcana  of 
nature,  man  can  never  discover  the  secret  of  accept- 
ance with  God.  No  mathematics  can  solve  the  mighty 
problem,  how  can  God  be  just,  and  yet  forgive  the 
sinner.  Geology  can  teach  him  how  the  earth  was 
built,  but  she  cannot  provide  him  a  better  habitation 
when  it  shall  be  no  more.  Astronomy  can  show  him 
the  number,  orbits,  and  distances  of  the  stars,  but  she 
cannot  make  him  shine  as  tlie  brightness  of  the  firma- 
ment, where  the  jewels  of  God  sparkle  like  brilliant 
constellations.  Chemistry  cannot  show  him  liow  to 
wash  out  the  stain  from  his  polluted  soul.  Political 
economy  cannot  teach  him  how  to  make  good  his  re- 
lations to  the  government  of  God.  He  must  turn 
from  the  obscure  pages  of  nature,  and  forsake  the 
3^ 


58  CHRISTOUK 

schools  of  Imman  philosophy,  and  listen  to  the  teach- 
ings of  one  mightier  than  they,  if  he  would  be  made 
wise  mito  salvation.  Christ  only  can  teach  man  how 
the  claims  of  a  broken  law  can  be  honored,  and  its 
curse  arrested.  He  only  can  provide  a  righteousness 
for  the  sinner,  arrayed  in  which,  he  need  not  fear  to 
face  the  stern  inquisition  of  the  law.  Without  it  he 
must  stand  in  all  his  nakedness,  shivering  and  quaking 
in  his  defencelessness,  before  avenging  justice.  When 
the  fearful  account  of  sin  is  presented,  and  payment  is 
demanded,  alas !  how  can  he  pay  the  debt  ?  The 
treasury  of  his  own  goodness  is  filled,  but  with  spuri- 
ous coin.  When  tested  by  the  law's  assay,  the  base- 
ness of  the  metal  is  at  once  apparent.  The  smallest 
item  in  that  long  account,  cannot  be  satisfied  with  all 
his  store.  Let  him  hasten  to  secure  the  surety  he 
needs ;  let  him  delay  not  to  obtain  the  righteousness 
of  Christ ;  for  while  he  lingers  and  wavers,  and  seeks 
to  furnish  the  requisite  amount  from  his  own  inade- 
quate resources,  lo !  the  skeleton  arm  of  the  grim 
sheriff  of  God's  tribunal  shall  drag  him,  helpless  and 
despairing,  down  to  the  deep  dungeons  of  an  eternal 
prison — shall  lock  forever  upon  him  the  inexorable 
door,  and  sink  the  ponderous  key  in  the  bottomless 
pir. 

Seek  then,  dear  reader,  an  interest  in  the  righteous- 
ness of  Christ.  By  all  that  is  blissful  in  salvation,  by 
all  that  is  awful  in  perdition,  seek  now,  first  of  all,  a 
justifying,  saving  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus.  Then, 
redemption  by  his  blood  will  be  your  song  in  the 
house   of  your  pilgrimage,   the   chorus  which  shall 


R  I  a  H  T  E  O  U  S  N  E  8  S  .  59 

ring  among  the  shades  of  the  dark  valley,  and  re- 
echo forever  from  the  radiant  summits  of  the  mount- 
ains of  glory. 


IV. 
SANCTIFICATION 


ITS     NATURE. 

"When,  by  the  teachings  of  Christ,  the  wisdom  of 
God,  man  is  convinced  of  sin,  and  by  faith  in  the 
rio^hteousness  of  Christ,  is  justified  and  freed  from  the 
condemnation  of  the  law,  God's  great  work  in  him  is 
not  accomplished.  His  relations  to  the  government 
of  God  are  entirely  changed  ;  his  sins  are  forgiven  ; 
his  guilt,  or  liability  to  punishment,  is  removed,  and 
he  is  adopted  into  the  family,  and  constituted  a  son  of 
the  Lord  Almighty.  But  though  his  guilt  is  taken 
away,  he  is  not  made  perfect  in  holiness,  and  assimi- 
lated to  the  character  of  God.  The  germ  of  a  new 
life  has  been  implanted  within  him ;  he  has  been  born 
again  with  a  spiritual  birth,  but  he  is  only  a  babe  in 
Christ ;  he  must  grow  from  infancy  to  youth,  and  from 
youth  to  manliood,  until  at  last  he  arrives,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  at  the  lofty  stature  of  a  perfect  man  in 
Christ  Jesus. 

It  is  but  a  meagre  and  superficial  view  of  religion, 
that  is  satisfied  with  a  bare  escape  from  the  maledic- 


S  A  N  C  T  I  F  I  C  A  T  I  O  N .  61 

tion  of  the  law ;  that  encourages  no  lofty  aspirations 
after  increasing  holiness — no  intense  desires  after  a 
richer  and  snblimer  participation  in  the  life  of  God. 
He  who  is  content  with  a  bare  escape  from  the  tor- 
ments of  hell,  and  cares  only  to  just  cross  the  crystal 
threshold  of  heaven ;  who  never  feels  his  ^iritiial 
pulses  thrill  with  desires  to  reach  a  station  near  the 
throne,  where  he  may  gaze  full  on  the  inclfahle 
brightness,  and  live  forever  in  the  light  and  the  glory, 
gives  very  little  evidence  that  he  has  been  truly  born 
again,  and  rescued  by  an  Almighty  deliverer  from  his 
thraldom  to  sense  and  to  sin.  For  though  the  smallest 
amount  of  heavenly  blessedness  is  far  above  our 
highest  deserts,  and  needed  to  be  purchased  for  us  by 
the  blood  of  Christ,  every  drop  of  which  was  more 
precious  than  the  crown  jewels  of  an  empire,  yet  to 
the  redeemed  and  justified  soul  there  are  offered  the 
very  loftiest  prizes  in  the  gift  of  heaven.  He  is  told 
that  there  are  thrones,  and  principalities  and  powers 
in  heavenly  places,  stations  of  loftier  eminence,  and 
crowns  of  richer  jewelry  ;  and  he  is  urged  to  strive 
for  the  highest  throne,  and  the  brightest  crown.  He 
is  told  that  in  the  spiritual  firmament  "  one  star  difier- 
eth  from  another  star  in  gloiy,"  and  bid  to  put  forth 
every  eflort  in  the  path  of  Christian  virtue  and  self- 
denial  and  labor,  that  he  may  be  one  of  the  most  bril- 
liant stars  in  the  constellations  of  the  redeemed.  The 
bare  entrance  into  heaven  is  not  to  be  the  end  of  his 
strivings  and  his  aspirations.  He  is  sure  of  that  at  the 
moment  of  his  justification.  When,  by  faith  in  the 
righteousness  of  Christ,  he  is  freed  from  all  liability  to 
the  penalty  of  the  law,  he  becomes  sure  of  a  place  in 


62  CHRIST    OUR 

the  heavenly  kingdom.  But  instead  of  taking  him  at 
once  to  heaven,  at  the  instant  of  his  justification,  God 
keeps  him  here  under  the  discipline  of  his  providence, 
and  the  influences  of  grace,  until  he  shall  be  ripened 
and  fitted  for  a  larger  portion  and  richer  allotment  of 
the  blessedness  and  the  glory  which  are  laid  up  for 
him  there.  When  justified,  he  secures  a  title  to  the 
heavenly  inheritance,  but  he  needs  to  be  sanctified,  to 
become  fitted  for  its  enjoyment.* 

Next  then  in  the  natural  order  of  Christ's  work  for 
man,  to  justification,  comes  sanctification,  which  feat- 
ure of  that  work  we  are  to  consider  in  this  chapter. 
We  are  first  interested  in  the  nature  of  this  work. 
Wliat  is  Sanctification  ? 

The  word  sanctify  means  to  separate,  or  set  apart 
any  thing  from  a  common  to  a  sacred  use — or  to  dedi- 
cate to  the  service  of  God.  When  it  is  used  in  respect 
to  the  people  of  God,  it  means  the  setting  them  apart 
to  the  service  of  God,  not  merely  by  an  act  of  outward 
consecration,  but  by  the  infusion  of  holiness  into  them 
by  God's  Spirit,  by  which  they  are  purified  from  the 
pollution  of  sin,  and  renewed  in  their  moral  nature 
after  the  image  of  God.  It  signifies  not  only  outward 
devotement,  but  inward  holiness ;  purity  of  heart,  and 
purity  of  life. 

The  difierence  between  justification  and  sanctifica- 
tion is  this :  justification  is  first  in  order,  and  sanctifi- 
cation follows.  Justification  takes  away  guilt,  or  ex- 
posure to  punishment.  Sanctification  cleanses  from 
the  stain  or  pollution  of  sin.  Justification  is  an  act  of 
God's  grace,  by  which  we  are  declared  righteous  in 

•See  Mellvill'a  Sermon  on  "  The  Advantages  of  a  State  of  Expectation." 


8  A  X  C  T  I  F  I  C  A  T  I  O  N .  63 

our  legal  relations.  Sanctilication  is  a  progressive 
work,  by  which  sin  is  subdued  and  holiness  wrought 
in  the  soul.  One  is  accomplished  instantly,  and  in  the 
same  way  in  the  case  of  every  believer.  The  other  is 
a  work  of  time,  and  advances  by  different  degrees  in 
different  cases.  Justification  is  a  change  in  man's  le- 
gal relations.  Sanctification  a  change  in  his  moral 
character.  Tlie  one  is  soinething  done  for  us ;  the 
other,  something  done  in  us.  In  one  word,  justifica- 
tion secures  for  the  believer  a  sure  title  to  heaven  ; 
sanctification  educates  and  prepares  him  for  its  com- 
plete enjoyment.  It  is  as  if  a  poor  ignorant  child,  who 
had  always  lived  in  low  and  vicious  society,  without 
physical,  intellectual,  or  moral  culture,  were  suddenly 
to  inherit  an  immense  estate.  The  title  deed  which  se- 
cured to  him  this  vast  property,  could  not  of  itself  pre- 
pare him  to  take  that  elevated  rank  in  society  to  which 
he  was  called,  and  to  move  with  dignity  and  grace  in 
his  new  and  exalted  sphere.  The  influence  of  early 
habits  and  associations  must  be  removed ;  his  mind 
must  be  cultivated  ;  his  manners  improved  ;  his  whole 
man  undergo  a  humanizing,  refining  process,  before  he 
is  qualified  to  enter  upon  that  new  life  which  is  opened 
before  him.  Thus,  while  man  is  made  sure  of  heaven 
by  the  act  of  justification,  he  needs  the  influence  of  a 
progressive  sanctification,  to  educate  him  for  its  purer 
and  sublimer  existence. 

Sanctification  does  not  consist  in  a  mere  external 
reformation.  Such  a  reformation  is  consistent  with  a 
corrupt  nature  and  an  unholy  heart.  Many  a  man, 
from  a  regard  to  his  health,  his  reputation,  or  his  secu- 
lar interests,  has  reformed  his  outward  life,  and  aban- 


64  ( ;  H  R  T  S  T      ()  U  R 

doned  those  sins  which  he  forinerl j  practiced,  and  yet 
has  been  only  like  a  whited  sepulchre,  beautiful  indeed 
outwardly,  but  within  full  of  dead  men's  bones,  and 
all  uncleanness.  Sanctihcation  does  not  lo^)  oif  the 
branches,  but  aims  its  blows  at  the  very  root  of  sin. 
It  does  not  aim  to  dam  up  the  streams,  but  it  thi-ows 
the  salt  of  divine  grace  into  the  very  fountain. 

When  a  man  is  justified,  tliough  his  liability  to  tlie 
law  is  removed,  he  is  still  but  partially  changed  in 
his  moral  character.  A  new  principle,  antagonistic 
to  that  which  before  reigned  supreme,  is  introduced 
into  the  soul,  but  the  old  one  is  not  entirely  eradicat- 
ed. Henceforth  there  is  to  be  a  conflict  between 
these  two  powers  of  good  and  evil,  and  though  in  the 
end,  the  principle  of  holiness  shall  be  victorious,  yet 
the  struggle  is  often  a  severe  and  bitter  one,  for  sin 
has  so  secured  itself  in  tlie  fastnesses  and  retreats  of 
the  aflections,  that  it  is  no  easy  thing  to  dislodge  it ; 
and  in  the  conflict,  the  heart  is  often  torn  and  wound- 
ed, so  that  the  stricken  and  struggling  soul  is  often 
forced  to  exclaim,  ''  Oh !  wretched  man  that  I  am, 
who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death  ?" 
This  conflict  is  not  the  work  of  a  day.  It  is  a  life 
work.  The  struggle  begins  when  the  man  is  regene- 
rated, but  it  will  never  end  as  long  as  mortal  life  re- 
mains. It  is  true  that  when  the  new  life  begins  in 
the  soul,  the  principle  of  sin  receives  a  deadly  wound, 
but  it  is  a  long  time  in  dying,  and  it  can  struggle  and 
assail  the  believer  until  it  makes  its  last  malignant 
eflPort  in  tlie  pangs  of  the  dying  hour,  and  is  van- 
quished completely,  only  when  the  believer's  last 
prayer,  "  Lord  Jesus  receive  my  spirit,"  is  breathed 


S  A  N  C  T  I  F  I  C  A  T  I  O  N  .  65 

forth  with  his  expiring  breath.  Then,  indeed,  this 
obstinate  foe  is  forever  conquered,  and  the  redeemed 
and  sanctified  soul  soars  to  sing  the  song  of  triumph 
in  the  anthems  of  Heaven. 

The  evidences  that  this  warfare  is  progressing  in 
the  soul  of  man,  and  that  the  principle  of  holiness  is 
daily  acquiring  new  strength,  while  there  is  a  corres- 
ponding weakening  of  the  power  of  the  contrary 
principle,  are  very  simple  and  easy  of  discernment, 
to  him  who  is  accustomed  to  examine  closely  into  his 
spiritual  state.  If  you  have  clearer  and  more  aflect- 
ing  views  of  the  evil  of  sin,  and  a  deeper  sense  of  its 
intrinsic  vileness  and  odiousness  in  the  sight  of  a  holy 
God :  if  you  are  conscious  that  your  own  aversion  to 
all  that  is  evil  is  a  growing  feeling,  and  that  you  are 
more  vigilant  in  detecting  and  striving  against  it ;  if 
you  pray  with  more  earnestness  and  frequency  to  be 
delivered  from  its  power,  and  are  increasingly  watch- 
ful against  the  attacks  of  temptation ;  if  you  are 
sensible  of  greater  desires  after  holiness,  and  more 
earnest  longing  after  more  perfect  conformity  to  the 
law  of  God  ;  then  you  may  be  assured  that  the  divine 
principle  of  spiritual  life,  which  was  implanted  within 
you  in  regeneration,  is  growing  in  strength  and  ac- 
tivity, and  that  the  opposite  principle  of  sin  is  declin- 
ing in  like  degree ;  then  you  may  be  assured  that  you 
are  dying  unto  sin,  and  attaining,  by  degrees,  to  a 
nobler  and  richer  participation  of  the  "  Life  of  God 
in  the  soul  of  man." 

To  understand  more  fully  the  nature  of  the  work 
of  sanctification,  let  us  consider  the  relation  it  sus- 
tains to  the  different  faculties  of  the  soul. 


06  CHUT  S  T      0  U  R 

Ist.  Consider  it  in  relatiou  to  the  understanding. 

We  have  remarked,  ah-eady,  that  the  natural  state 
of  man  is  one  of  ignorance  as  well  as  guilt,  and  that 
in  the  work  of  salvation,  Christ  is  first  made  of  God 
unto  him  wisdom  or  instruction.  "With  his  first  ideas 
of  truth  in  relation  to  God  or  to  himself,  the  work  of 
instruction  begins,  and  is  carried  on,  until  taught  ef- 
fectually his  guilt  and  danger,  he  applies  to  Christ  for 
pardon,  justification,  and  eternal  life.  But  when  he 
has  been  justified  and  constituted  a  child  of  God  and 
an  heir  of  heaven,  the  process  of  instruction  is  by  no 
means  complete.  He  has  but  entered  the  school  of 
Christ,  and  his  spiritual  education  is  but  just  begun. 
He  has  indeed  made  some  advancement  from  the  de- 
plorable ignorance  of  his  natural  state,  but  he  has 
only  entered  upon  a  vast  and  unbounded  field  of  spir- 
itual knowledge  and  attainment,  which  will  tax  his 
most  exalted  capacities  to  the  utmost.  As  in  natural 
things,  he  who  has  made  the  greatest  advancement, 
only  feels  how  little  he  knows  in  comparison  with 
what  remains  to  be  comprehended  and  mastered,  so, 
he  that  has  launched  upon  the  mighty  ocean  of  spir- 
itual and  supernatural  truth,  finds  that  it  is  an  ocean 
whose  waves  break  upon  no  shore,  and  that  as  he  sails 
along,  new  and  sublime,  and  inspiring,  and  soul-sub- 
duing revelations  are  constantly  made  to  his  expanded 
mind,  of  God's  wonders  in  this  mighty  deep. 

Yes,  dear  readers,  the  mighty  themes  which  the 
Divine  Spirit  brings  before  the  soul,  whose  imder- 
standing  has  been  enlightened  by  beams  of  celestial 
light,  cannot  be  mastered  in  a  day.  Even  a  divinely 
instructed  intellect  cannot  take  the  altitude  of  their 


S  A  N  C  T  I  F  I  C  A  T  ION.  67 

lofty  lieiglitSj  nor  reach  the  bottom  of  their  profound 
abysses.  They  themselves  are  unchanging  and  eter- 
nal, the  same  from  age  to  age,  trom  generation  to  gen- 
eration. But  the  ideas  which  a  heavenly  instructed 
mind  entertains  of  their  beauty  and  power,  are  con- 
tinually enlarging,  "  becoming  more  distinct,  steady, 
comprehensive,  and  affecting."  What  the  eloquent 
Kobert  Hall  so  strikingly  and  truly  said  of  the  idea  of 
God,  is  equally  true  of  all  spiritual  truths ;  that  "  Avhen 
once  they  enter  the  mind,  they  are  capable  of  con- 
tinual growth  and  enlargement.  Our  conceptions  of 
them  are  continually  receiving  fresh  accessions — are 
continually  growing  more  extended  and  refulgent,  by 
having  transferred  to  them  new  elements  of  beauty 
and  goodness,  by  attracting  to  themselves  as  a  center, 
w^hatever  bears  the  impress  of  dignity,  order  or  hap- 
piness. They  borrow  splendor  from  all  that  is  fair — 
subordinate  to  themselves  all  that  is  great,  and  sit  en- 
throned on  the  riches  of  the  universe." 

Tlie  redeemed  and  justified  man  has  a  Divine 
teacher.  He  may  not  be  a  learned  man  in  earthly  sci- 
ence, but  there  is  a  nobler  knowledge,  a  higher  sci- 
ence, in  which  he  may  make  advances  which  shall  tell 
upon  his  eternal  dignity  and  enjoyment.  Truth  is  a\ 
means  of  sanctiiication  ;  and  when  the  Redeemer,  in  I 
his  prayer  for  his  disciples,  revealed  the  great  secret 
of  spiritual  progress,  his  petition  was,  ''  Sanctify  them 
through  thy  truth."  It  is  through  the  influence  of 
eternal  truth  upon  the  mind  and  heart,  as  one  great 
means,  that  the  work  of  sanctification  progresses. 
ISTor  is  this  an  inferior  path,  though  it  is  one  which  not 
many  wise  men  after  the  flesh  are  called  to  tread. 


68  CHRIST     OUR 

Tlie  sublimest,  the  most  real  and  satisfying,  the  most 
successful  in  expanding  man's  intellect,  and  bringing 
peace  to  tlie  soul,  are  the  truths  of  religion.  The 
philosopher  in  his  study,  surrounded  by  the  works  of 
the  master  minds  of  past  ages,  may  look  down  upon 
the  Christian  student  with  his  well  worn  Bible,  and 
imagine,  that  whatever  may  be  the  influence  of  that 
volume  upon  the  heart,  it  cannot  equip  a  champion 
for  the  mental  arena ;  and  yet,  within  that  wonderful 
book  are  found  the  truths,  with  which  the  human  soul 
has  the  deepest  affinities,  and  which  possess  the 
strongest  power  of  purely  intellectual  development. 

A  more  faithful  attendance  upon  the  study  of  the 
Word  of  God,  under  the  promised  illumination  of  the 
Great  Spirit  of  truth,  as  a  means  of  increasing  in 
holiness,  is  a  means  of  intellectual  as  well  as  spiritual 
advancement.  Religion  is  adapted  to  the  whole 
nature  of  man.  It  is  essential  to  the  complete  devel- 
opement  of  his  powers,  and  the  satisfaction  of  his  af- 
fections. And  the  truth  of  God,  applied  to  his  under- 
standing by  a  Divine  teacher,  is  not  only  a  means  of 
advancing  in  holiness,  but  in  mental  power  ;  and  its 
influence  is  not  fully  realized  by  man,  when  the  ex- 
panding and  strengthening  process  is  not  as  truly  ap- 
plied to  his  intellectual  faculties,  as  to  his  moral  sen- 
sibilities. 

In  this  connection  we  wish  to  ask,  whether  there 
was  not  among  our  Puritan  ancestors,  in  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries,  a  very  remarkable  degree 
of  original  mental  power.  They  were  not  literary 
men,  in  the  sense  in  which  that  term  is  now  used,  or 
rather  abused ;  they  were  not  men  of  elegant  or  varied 


8ANCTIFICATI0N.  00 

learning.  But  we  think  it  cannot  be  denied  that  tliev 
were  profound  thinkers,  bold  and  powerful  reasoners, 
and  men  who  made  themselves  felt  alike  in  council 
and  in  battle.  They  were  strong  minded  men,  and 
there  probably  never  was  a  class  of  men  who  were 
profounder  students  of  the  Word  of  God.  Tlieir  very 
conversation  was  in  the  dialect  of  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
and  though  they  unjustly  despised  the  writings  of 
philosophers  and  poets,  they  were  more  lamiliar  witli 
the  sublimer  philosophj^  and  poetry  of  the  Word  of 
God,  than  any  class  of  men  who  have  come  after  them. 
Their  piety  too,  though  it  had  something  of  a  gloomy 
and  ascetic  cast,  and  often  arrayed  itself  in  a  grim 
visage  and  sad-colored  apparel,  was  deep,  manly, 
earnest,  and  sincere.  For  the  power  of  their  minds, 
and  the  piety  of  tlieir  hearts,  they  were  mainly  in- 
debted to  the  strengthening  and  purifying  influence 
of  the  truth  of  God. 

In  Sanctification,  then,  the  understanding  becomes 
more  and  more  illuminated  by  the  Word  and  Spirit 
of  truth.  The  Christian  becomes  better  acquainted 
with  spiritual  things.  His  views  of  God — his  perfec- 
tions, and  his  law ;  of  Christ — the  beauty  of  his  char- 
acter, and  the  nature  of  his  work  ;  of  himself — his 
own  ignorance,  weakness  and  sinfulness ;  of  holi- 
ness— its  beauty,  and  desirableness ;  all  become  more 
enlarged,  more  absorbing,  more  powerful  in  their 
transforming,  restraining  and  purifying  influence. 
The  frequent  study  of  those  divine  principles  and  holy 
precepts  contained  in  the  Word  of  God,  carried  home 
to  the  heart  and  enforced  by  the  teachings  of  a  Divine 
instructor,  cannot  fail  to  have  a  sanctifying  influence  ; 


TO  -^  CHRISTOUR 

and  tlie  man  whose  understanding  is  more  and  more 
impressed  with  God's  truth,  will  develope  its  purify- 
ing and  elevating  power  in  his  moral  nature. 

But  there  is  a  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  which  pro- 
duces no  such  inliuence.  There  are  those  who  are  great 
students  of  the  Bible,  and  attain  to  an  extraordinary 
historical  knowledge  of  its  facts  and  its  principles. 
They  study  it  as  a  literary  work,  for  its  history,  its  logic, 
its  poetry,  its  descriptions,  its  wise  maxims,  and  its 
graphic  and  afiecting  narratives.  They  study  without  a 
Divine  teacher,  and  though  they  may  be  learned  in 
the  Scriptures,  it  is  but  a  speculative  knowledge, 
which  brings  with  it  no  sanctifying  influence  upon 
the  soul.  They  never  penetrate  below  the  surface  of 
the  text,  and  reach  the  deep  vein  of  spiritual  meaning 
which  lies  beneath.  They  do  not  study  prayerfully, 
invoking  the  aid  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  to  teach  them 
in  what  the  real  value  and  beauty  of  God's  revelation 
consists.  Tlie  process  with  them  is  purely  intellectu- 
al ;  the  Spirit  does  not  take  of  the  things  of  God,  and 
show  them  unto  them.  And  there  have  been  often 
presented,  in  the  history  of  men,  very  beautiful  illus- 
trations of  the  superiority  of  that  instruction  which 
the  mind,  which  has  been  divinely  illuminated,  re- 
ceives from  its  heavenly  teacher,  over  that  which  is 
but  the  fruit  of  the  labor  of  reason,  and  the  result  of 
plose  and  profound  investigation.  More  than  one 
learned  Biblical  scholar,  who  could  read  the  Scrip- 
tures in  their  original  tongues  with  marvelous  fluen- 
cy, and  was  familiar  with  the  history  and  chronology 
and  geography  of  the  Bible,  has  come  in  contact  with 
some  humble,   unlearned,  but  very  pious  Christian, 


SANCTIFICATION.  Tl 

and  has  found  that  the  illiterate  cottager  had  a  deeper 
and  better  understanding  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  a 
far  more  extensive  insight  into  its  spiritual  import, 
than  all  his  learning  and  critical  investigation  had  se- 
cured for  him.  Yea !  the  unlearned  man,  who  per- 
haps could  not  argue  for  the  divinity  of  the  volume  in 
which  he  had  found  such  a  wonderful  adaption  to  his 
spiritual  necessities,  but  could  feel  the  preciousness  of 
such  an  adaption,  gained  more  of  light  and  strength 
and  spiritual  impulse  from  the  truth  of  God,  though 
obliged  to  spell  out  its  simplest  passages  in  his 
mother  tongue,  than  did  the  scholar  who  could  dis- 
course learnedly  on  the  peculiarities  of  the  Hebrew 
text,  in  w^hich  the  law-giver  or  the  prophet  uttered 
their  sublime  annunciations,  or  the  idiom  of  the 
Greek,  in  which  inspired  apostles  poured  forth  their 
convincing  and  subduing  eloquence.  And  the  differ- 
ence was,  that  the  one  was  taught  of  that  Divine  in- 
structor, who  with  a  teaching  which  must  be  felt  to  be 
understood,  "  maketh  w^ise  the  simple." 

The  illumination  of  the  mind  with  spiritual  truth, 
is  one  element  in  the  work  of  Sanctification. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  relation  of  the  work  ot 
Sanctification  to  the  will. 

The  highest  attainment  of  a  Christian  is  the  com- 
plete subjection  of  his  will  to  that  of  God.  The  very 
essence  of  holiness  consists  in  being  like-minded  with 
him ;  to  love  what  he  loves,  to  approve  what  he  ap- 
proves, to  hate  what  he  hates,  and  to  avoid  whatever 
is  displeasing  to  him.  This  is  the  peculiarity  of 
heaven,  that  there  is  no  will  there,  l)ut  the  will  of 
God.     This  does  not  imply  a  state  of  despotism,  but 


72  C  H  K  I  S  T     O  U  K 

on  the  contrary,  a  state  of  the  most  perfect  freedom. 
Every  volition  of  the  glorified  soul  is  entirely  free, 
and  yet  entirely  in  conformity  with  the  will  of  God. 
When  a  man  is  regenerated,  the  principle  of  uncon- 
ditional submission  to  the  will  of  God  is  implanted 
within  the  soul,  and  the  heart  which  was  formerly  re- 
bellious, is  subdued  and  brought  into  subjection.  But 
this  work  is  not  then  perfected.  Often  does  the  w^ill, 
even  of  the  Christian,  rise  against  God ;  and  where 
the  dispensations  of  his  Providence  are  inscrutable 
and  afflicting,  there  is  an  intense  struggle  in  the  soul 
before  it  can  say,  "  'Not  my  will,  but  thine  be  done." 
When  our  fond  ho23es  are  blighted,  and  God  in  his 
sovereignty  comes  across  our  path,  to  lay  our  idols  in 
the  dust,  and  shatter  the  temple  of  our  heart  worship, 
oh !  then,  how  natural  it  is  for  the  will  to  rise  up 
against  God,  and  question  the  wisdom,  the  justice, 
the  goodness,  of  his  dealings !  It  is  the  noblest  tri- 
umph of  faith  to  exercise  submission.  The  passive 
virtues  of  religion,  underrated  as  they  are  by  the  busy 
and  unthinking,  removed  from  the  notice  of  the  noisy 
crowd,  require  a  depth  of  j^rinciple,  an  intensity  ol 
affection,  and  a  sincerity  of  devotion,  which  are  re- 
quired by  no  brilliant  achievement  which  might  win 
the  plaudits  of  an  admiring  world.  To  submit,  for  no 
other  reason,  than  that  it  is  the  will  of  God  ;  to  sub- 
mit, not  with  "  an  unwilling  willingness  "  or  a  stoical 
insensibility,  but  while  every  fiber  of  our  sensitive 
being  is  quivering  with  anguish  ;  to  submit  cheerfully 
to  God's  dispensation,  saying,  "  Even  so,  Father,  for 
so  it  seems  good  in  thy  sight ;"  this  is  a  great  attain- 


S  A  N  C  T  I  F  I  C  A  T  I  O  N  .  73 

ment,  and  proves  that  tlie  work  of  sanctification  has 
made  great  progre8s  in  tlie  tried  one's  soul. 

The  secret  of  such  submission  lies  in  a  perfect  con- 
viction, which  is  the  effect  of  that  divine  illumination 
of  the  mind  of  which  we  have  spoken,  that  the  will 
of  God  is  not  only  supreme,  but  that  it  is  perfectly 
wise,  and  just,  and  good,  and  that  it  is  entirely  in  con- 
formity with  the  dictates  of  an  enlightened  reason,  as 
well  as  a  humble  piety,  that  we  should  always  submit. 
This  is  a  rare  attainment,  and  betokens  a  manly 
growth  of  piety  in  the  soul.  It  is  one  thing,  when 
our  own  will  and  pleasure  seems  not  to  come  athwart 
the  w^ill  of  God  ;  when  he  allows  us  to  carry  out  our 
plans,  and  rejoice  in  the  fruition  of  our  hopes,  to  ac- 
knowledge that  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  does  right ; 
and  profess  to  have  no  will  of  our  own,  when  the  con- 
fession costs  us  no  sacrifice.  But  it  is  quite  another 
thing,  w^hen  the  idol  of  our  soul  must  be  laid  upon 
the  altar,  and  the  finest  chord  within  us  strained  to 
the  highest  pitch  of  anguish,  then  to  put  the  strang- 
ling cord  upon  our  dearest  affection,  and  raise  the 
knife  to  slay  the  object  of  our  fondest  devotion.  The 
theory  and  the  practice  of  submission  are  immensely 
different,  in  the  strain  they  make  upon  the  heart- 
strings. It  is  one  thing  to  assent  to  the  correctness 
of  the  theory,  and  quite  another  to  be  the  subject  of 
the  experiment  which  is  to  demonstrate  its  truth. 

In  proportion,  then,  as  we  find  ourselves  less  dis- 
posed to  set  up  our  own  will  in  opposition  to  that  of 
God ;  when  that  will  needs  only  to  be  intimated  to  our 
understanding  to  secure  the  consent  of  our  affections; 
when  we  can  say,  we  have  and  desire  to  have  no  will 
4 


74  CHRIST     OUR 

but  God's,  we  have  good  evidence  that  the  work  of 
sanctification  has  made  great  progress  in  our  hearts ; 
that  we  are  growing  in  grace,  and  approximating 
towards  "  the  stature  of  perfect  men  in  Christ  Jesus." 
It  is  only  by  Divine  aid  that  this  victory  over  the 
imperious  will  can  be  attained. 

Again  the  w^ork  of  Sanctification  has  important 
relations  to  the  affections. 

It  is  a  remark  of  one  of  the  greatest  and  best  men 
whom  the  world  has  ever  seen,  Jonathan  Edwards, 
that  "true  religion  in  great  part  consists  in  holy  affec- 
tions." The  difference  between  the  two  great  faculties 
of  a  moral  being,  the  understanding  and  the  affections, 
or  the  mind  and  the  heart,  is,  that  the  one  perceives 
and  judges  of  things,  and  the  other  exercises  emotions 
in  respect  to  them.  The  one  reasons;  the  other  feels, 
approves  or  disapproves,  loves  or  hates,  chooses  or 
rejects.  Now  the  understanding  may  act  independ- 
ently of  the  affections,  and  the  affections  may  refuse 
to  follow  the  guidance  of  the  understanding.  But  in 
the  work  of  Sanctification,  the  mind  is  not  only  assist- 
ed to  take  right  views  of  spiritual  things,  but  the 
heart  is  enabled  to  exercise  right  emotions  towards 
them. 

Inasmuch  as  the  affections  have  been  constituted 
the  spring  of  action,  so  the  change  which  takes  place 
in  a  man's  nature,  when  he  is  regenerated  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,  must  have  especial  relation  to  them. 
That  they  are  thus  the  spring  of  action,  who  will  deny, 
who  has  felt  within  his  bosom  the  tumultuous  throb- 
bings  of  a  human  heart?  It  is  upon  the  heaving 
swell  of  that  shoreless  ocean  of  feeling,  which  is  found 


8  A  N  C  T  I  F  I  C  A  T  I  O  N  .  T5 

in  every  bosom,  tliat  man  is  swept  along  to  resolute 
and  energetic  action.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  ac- 
tion, independent  of  the  affections.  Take  away  from 
man,  love,  Iiate,  hope  and  fear,  desire  and  aversion, 
joy  or  grief,  and  you  have  taken  away  the  very  soul 
of  action  from  him.  Without  these  man  is  but  a 
block  of  marble,  cold — passionless — dead.  Let  these 
be  excited,  and  Promethean  fire  is  infused  into  the 
statue,  and  it  w^akes  from  its  strong  lethargy  to  an 
intense  and  earnest  life.  As  this  is  true  in  natural, 
so  it  is  true  in  heavenly  things.  Religion  consists 
not  in  the  cold  deductions  of  the  reason,  or  the  decis- 
ions of  the  understanding.  Her  truths  are  to  be  in- 
deed received  into  the  mind,  but  they  are  not  to  be 
the  subject  of  cold  and  barren  speculation.  She 
enters  the  empire  of  the  heart — she  dives  into  the 
deepest  cell  of  the  affections.  She  enkindles  love, 
gratitude,  hope,  fear,  desire,  joy,  sorrow,  into  lively 
exercise.  She  opens  new  channels  for  the  gushing 
waters  of  the  heart's  fountain,  where  they  may  flow 
on  forever  without  bitterness,  and  without  obstruc- 
tion. She  reveals  to  the  soul  the  depth  and  refinement 
of  its  own  sensibilities,  and  at  the  same  time  directs 
it  to  objects  which  can  forever  fill  and  gratify  those 
sensibilities.  She  comes  to  the  heart  which  has  lav- 
ished its  deep  stores  of  tenderness,  on  some  frail,  un- 
satisfying, and  perishing  thing  of  earth,  and  places 
before  it  that  which  is  worthy  of  its  fondest  devotion, 
which  will  satisfy  its  intensest  cravings,  which  will 
not  change  and  cannot  die.  She  draws  the  affections 
away  from  all  low,  and  false,  and  sinful  things,  and 
places  them  upon  pure,  spiritual,  heavenly  realities. 


76  0  H  R  I  S  T     O  U  R 

She  makes  them  the  source  of  holy  joy,  and  the  spring 
of  holy  activity.  She  purges  them  from  the  grossness 
of  earth,  and  spiritualizes  them,  making  them  like  the 
affections  of  heaven. 

This  effect  of  the  work  of  God's  Spirit  in  the  soul 
of  man,  as  it  communicates  and  sets  into  action  the 
divine  life  in  him,  is  that  feature  of  spiritual  religion 
of  which  the  natural  man  is  most  ignorant,  and  with 
which  he  has  no  sympathy.  You  may  talk  with  an 
unrenewed  man,  about  the  doctrines  of  religion,  its 
mere  intellectualities ;  and  so  far  as  the  mental  opera- 
tion in  receiving  truth  and  weighing  evidence  is 
concerned,  he  may  comprehend  your  experience  and 
sympathize  with  it.  But  when  you  go  deeper,  and 
lifting  up  the  curtain  of  the  heart,  display  something 
of  the  power  of  the  Word  and  the  Spirit  upon  the 
affections ;  when  you  speak  of  your  perceptions  of  the 
beauty  and  excellency  of  spiritual  things;  of  your 
sensible  delight  in  them ;  of  the  ministrations  they 
bring  to  the  profoundest  necessities  of  your  nature, 
and  the  life  and  gladness  which  they  infuse  into  your 
whole  spiritual  being,  you  speak  to  him  in  an  un- 
known tongue,  and  he  has  no  better  understanding  of 
what  you  say,  than  a  deaf  man  would  have  of  the 
sweetness  of  a  melody,  or  a  blind  man  of  the  blended 
colors  of  the  rainbow. 

But  this  work  of  the  Spirit  upon  the  affections  of 
the  soul  is  tardy  and  often  obstructed.  The  things  we 
see  around  us,  often  take  our  eyes  and  our  hearts  from 
those  better  things  which  are  revealed  only  to  the 
vision  of  faith.  Our  natural  affections,  not  content 
with  that  measure  of  indulgence  which  we  may  law- 


S  ANOTIFIC  ATION".  77 

fully  aftord  tliem,  grow  more  wilful  and  exacting, 
until  tliej  claim  and  receive  far  more  than  their 
rightful  portion.  AYe  are  apt  to  be  satisfied  -with  that 
understanding  which  we  have  of  spiritual  things,  and 
therefore  by  attaining  no  new  views  of  their  beauty 
and  excellency,  give  them  no  more  of  our  admiration 
and  love.  Our  necessary  connection  with  the  busi- 
ness, and  cares,  and  friendships  of  life,  is  often  a  great 
hindrance  to  the  purification  and  elevation  of  the 
affections.  But  by  a  daily  and  diligent  study  of  the 
revelation  of  the  perfections  of  God,  which  he  has 
given  us ;  by  a  sedulous  cultivation  of  the  habit  of 
meditation  upon  spiritual  things ;  by  a  stern  watch- 
fulness against  the  lawless  outbreakings  of  our  natur- 
al affections,  and  constant  prayer  to  God  for  a  quick- 
ening of  our  spiritual  sensibilities,  we  may  overcome 
these  enemies  and  temptations,  and  find  good  evi- 
dence that  the  work  of  the  sanctifying  Spirit,  in  its  re- 
lations to  our  affections,  is  making  sensible  progress. 
Faith  will  be  "  strengthened  by  clearer  apprehensions 
of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  Love  will  grow 
warmer  as  the  love  of  God  is  more  steadily  contem- 
plated and  more  sensibly  felt.  Hope  will  brighten 
at  the  glorious  prospect  of  life  and  immortality  brought 
to  light  in  the  Gospel.  Repentance  will  melt  into 
more  copious  tears,  w^hile  it  looks  at  the  cross,  where 
the  vileness  of  sin  is  exhibited  with  a  power  which 
the  heart  can  feel,  but  which  the  tongue  cannot  de- 
scribe." The  wdiole  man,  body,  mind,  and  heart,  will 
feel  the  transforming  influence  of  divine  grace,  and 
be  daily  ripening  for  a  perfect  assimilation  to  God, 
and  an  eternal  enjoyment  of  his  presence  in  better 


78  S  A  N  C  T  I  F  I  C  A  T  I  O  N . 

worlds.  Thus  shall  the  righteous  "  hold  on  his  way, 
and  he  that  hath  clean  hands  wax  stronger  and 
stronger."  Thus  shall  "  the  path  of  the  just  be  as  a 
shining  light,  which  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the 
perfect  day ;"  and  thus,  going  from  strength  to  strength, 
every  regenerated,  justified,  and  sanctified  soul  at  last 
in  Zion  shall  appear  before  God.  ''Thus  shall  we  be 
satisfied,  O  God,  when  we  awake,  with  thy  likeness ! " 
Amen ! 


V. 
SANCTIFICATION, 


ITS     MEANS. 

"We  have  already  considered  the  nature  of  the  work 
of  Sanctification,  and  its  relations  to  the  understand- 
ing, the  will,  and  the  affections.  We  have  found  that 
it  consists  in  an  increasing  knowledge  of  Divine  things, 
which  is  the  fruit  of  the  illuminating  influence  of  the 
Divine  Spirit,  through  the  Word,  upon  the  mind ;  in 
a  gradual  subjection  of  the  will  to  the  will  of  God  ; 
and  in  the  daily  devotement  of  the  deep  affections  of 
the  heart  to  God  and  holiness.  Where  these  charac- 
teristics are  found,  there  the  Divine  work  of  sanctifica- 
tion is  progressing,  and  there  is  an  undoubted  increase 
and  growth  of  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man. 
This  should  be  the  ambition  of  the  Christian,  an  ambi- 
tion worthy  of  an  angel ;  to  be  daily  becoming  more 
like  God  in  the  depth,  and  purity,  and  intensity  of  spir- 
itual life.  ]N'ot  satisfied  with  the  bare  hope  of  an 
escape  from  hell,  he  should  burn  to  reach  the  highest 


80  C^  H  K  I  S  T      ()  U  R 

place  in  heaven.  Xot  content  to  cross  the  crystal 
threshold,  he  should  aspire  to  tread  the  radiant  streets 
with  a  nobler  step,  and  strike  the  celestial  harp-strings 
to  a  loftier  note.  Ambition  is  indeed  an  unworthy 
and  a  dangerous  passion,  where  it  is  evoked  and  ex- 
pended only  upon  the  unsatisfying  or  corrupting 
things  of  earth  and  time ;  but  when  the  soul's  vision 
is  filled  with  the  splendid  realities  of  heaven  and  eter- 
nity, and  longs  with  all  the  unutterable  cravings  of  its 
immortal  nature  to  obtain  them,  then  ambition  be- 
comes a  noble,  an  elevating  principle,  and  it  leads  on 
the  man  in  the  rugged  path  of  virtue,  undaunted  by 
obstacles,  unallured  by  temptations ;  for  he  has  been 
taught,  that  only  in  that  path  can  his  aspirations  be 
fully  satisfied ;  he  has  been  told,  as  he  longed  to  gaze 
full  upon  the  ineffable  brightness  of  heaven  and  God, 
to  see  not  as  through  a  glass  darkly,  but  face  to  face ; 
to  know  not  in  part,  but  even  as  he  is  known,  that  the 
path  of  Christian  virtue  is  the  path  of  heavenly  glory, 
and  that  "  without  holiness,  no  man  shall  see  the 
Lord !" 

It  is  a  sad  thing,  that  while  we  are  ot\en  obliged  to 
chide  and  restrain,  and  put  the  strong  hand  upon  am- 
bition in  the  worldly  man,  in  whose  sphere  of  emotion 
and  desire,  and  endeavor,  there  is  so  little  which  is 
adapted  to  move  and  inspire  the  soul ;  we  are  as  fre- 
quently obliged  to  chide  its  absence  in  the  Christian, 
before  whose  spiritual  vision  are  beauties  and  glories 
which  should  absorb  his  whole  being,  and  rouse  into  ac- 
tion energies  which  may  have  slumbered  from  his  crea- 
tion. The  objects  before  him  are  like  the  powers  which 
he  tasks  in  their  pursuit,  infinite  and  eternal.   They  re- 


SANCTIFICATION.  81 

pay  him  for  every  exertion.  They  offer  for  every 
victory  a  laurel  which  shall  never  fade.  They  make 
every  holy  attainment  but  a  stepping-stone  to  greater, 
and  open  before  him  a  field  of  affection  and  of  action, 
bounded  only  by  a  boundless  immortality. 

Let  us  realize,  then,  dear  readers,  the  sublimity  of 
our  vocation.  We  are  not  called  to  be  rich,  or 
famous,  or  learned ;  but  we  are  called  to  be  holy ;  not 
as  some  frail  imperfect  divinity  of  earth,  but  as  tlie 
Lord  our  God  is  holy.  We  are  made  nobles  and 
priests,  not  with  the  uncertain  and  limited  temire  of 
an  earthly  creation  and  consecration,  but  by  the  right 
of  an  eternal  creation,  and  by  the  imposition  of  an 
Omnipotent  hand.  Let  us  labor  to  walk  worthy  of 
this  lofty  vocation,  and  bend  every  energy  of  the 
body,  every  faculty  of  the  mind,  every  affection  of 
soul,  to  the  worl^  of  constant,  progressive  sanctihcation. 

The  means  of  Sanctification,  and  the  degree  of  its 
attainment  on  earth,  are  the  points  which  yet  remain 
for  our  consideration.  But  before  we  proceed  to  their 
examination,  let  us  inquire  what  relation  does  Christ 
sustain  to  the  sanctification  of  his  people.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  it  is  an  intimate  and  important  relation,  for 
Christ  is  said  to  be  "made  of  God  unto  us,  sanctifica- 
tion." There  are  many  other  passages,  where  God 
the  Holy  Ghost  is  said  to  be  the  chief  agent  in  this 
work,  which  is  here  ascribed  to  Christ.  But  although 
it  is  through  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit  that  the 
work  of  sanctification  is  carried  on  in  the  Christian's  '; 
heart,  yet  it  is  no  less  true  that  Christ  may  be  called  / 
with  perfect  propriety  the  author  of  that  work.  He/ 
is  the  author  of  every  spiritual  blessing.  His  atoning 
4* 


82  C  H  R  I  S  T     O  U  R 

work  procures  for  us  pardon,  justification,  adoption, 
sanctification,  and  complete  redemption.  Thus  the 
Apostle  declares,  that  Christ  "  gave  himself  for  us, 
that  he  might  redeem  us  from  all  iniquity,  and  purity 
unto  himself  a  peculiar  people,  zealous  of  good  works." 
(Titus  2  :  14).  In  our  natural  state  we  are  guilty  and 
polluted  ;  our  moral  nature  utterly  depraved  and  des- 
titute of  holiness.  In  this  state  of  guilt  and  pollution 
there  was  nothing  in  us,  which  could  induce  God  to 
exert  upon  us  those  influences  which  purify  the  soul, 
and  fit  it  for  companionship  with  him.  Our  guilt 
must  be  taken  away,  our  relations  to  the  law  and  jus- 
tice of  God  must  be  changed,  before  we  can  properly 
be  made  holy  by  divine  and  gracious  influences. 
Christ,  as  the  sacrifice  for  sin,  removes  our  guilt,  and 
brings  us  into  such  a  relation  to  God,  as  that  he  may, 
with  perfect  propriety  and  consistency,  bestow  upon 
us  all  needed  spiritual  infiuences,  to  perfect  that 
gracious  work  in  us  which  was  begun  at  the  moment 
of  regeneration.  Therefore  Christ,  as  the  author  of 
our  justification,  must  also  be  the  author  of  our  sanc- 
tification. It  is  likewise  in  consequence  of  the  inter- 
cession of  Christ,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  sent  to  carry 
on  the  work  of  sanctification  in  the  heart  of  the  be- 
liever. Our  divine  Redeemer  will  not  leave  his  work 
unfinished.  Having  by  his  obedience  and  death  re- 
moved the  barrier  between  the  grace  of  God  and  the 
soul  of  man,  and  opened  a  channel  through  which 
renewing  infiuences  may  fiow  in  upon  the  sinner,  he 
now  constantly  intercedes  for  his  people,  that  this 
purifying  infiuence  may  continue  to  be  exerted  upon 
them  —  that  they  may  "grow  in  grace,   and  in  the 


8ANCTIFICATI0N.  83 

knowledge  of  their  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ," 
and  that  they  may  at  last  arrive  at  the  stature  of  per- 
fect men  in  Christ  Jesus.  There  is  no  coniiict  between 
the  Avork  of  Christ  and  that  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  The 
latter  is  the  agent  in  the  regeneration  of  the  soul,  but 
had  not  Christ  died  to  open  the  way  for  these  renew- 
ing influences  to  be  sent  upon  man,  his  moral  nature 
still  stained  with  guilt  unatoned,  and  crying  for  the 
vengeance  of  heaven,  never  would  have  been  changed 
and  renewed  after  the  holy  image  of  his  Maker.  So,^ 
the  Holy  Spirit  carries  on  the  work  of  sanctification 
in  the  soul,  but  our  blessed  Kedeemer,  by  his  con- 
stant and  prevalent  intercession,  ensures  the  continued 
work  of  the  Spirit.  If  it  were  possible  for  our  great 
High  Priest  to  suspend  his  covenant  work  of  inter- 
cession for  his  people,  there  would  be  an  instant  cessa- 
tion of  all  saving  and  sanctifying  spiritual  influences 
on  the  soul,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  would  abandon  his 
sanctifying  work.  So  that  Christ  is  truly  our  sanc- 
tification, inasmuch  as  to  his  obedience,  death  and 
intercession,  we  owe  the  commencement,  progress, 
and  final  perfection  of  holiness  in  the  soul. 

Tlie  question  now  arises,  what  are  the  means  of 
sanctification?  And  there  is  no  inquiry  more  im- 
portant for  the  consideration  of  the  Christian.  It  in- 
volves the  method  of  his  continuance  in  holiness,  and 
his  final  attainment  of  salvation.  It  is  a  question  of 
life  or  death  with  him,  and  to  be  indifi'erent  to  it, 
would  be  a  grosser  folly  than  his  who  should  take  no 
pains  in  procuring  bodily  food,  and  yet  should  expect 
to  sustain  his  physical  frame  in  strength  and  activity. 

In  regard  to  the  means   of  sanctification,   or  in- 


84:  CHRI8TOUR 

creasing  in  holiness,  men  have  sometimes  greatly 
erred.  They  have  devised  and  employed  mere  human 
methods,  and  as  might  have  been  expected,  they  have 
miserably  failed.  They  have  withdrawn  themselves 
from  the  abodes  of  men.  They  have  courted  the  se- 
clusion of  the  cloister,  and  the  solitude  of  the  cave. 
They  have  inflicted  tortures  upon  the  body,  and 
doomed  themselves  to  the  rigors  of  an  ascetic  life. 
But  they  have  found  that  no  convent  walls,  no  seclud- 
ed cell,  could  shut  out  from  man  his  greatest  spiritual 
foe,  his  own  wicked  heart,  and  that  there  was  no 
spiritual  efficacy  in  mere  bodily  mortification.  And 
the  history  of  monasticism,  could  its  dark  secrets  be 
fully  revealed,  w^ould  show  that  it  fostered  depravity, 
rather  than  promoted  holiness,  and  was  more  redolent 
of  the  atmosphere  of  hell,  than  of  that  of  heaven. 

"  The  rule  of  sanctification  is  the  word  of  God."  It 
is  the  aim  of  the  Spirit,  to  work  in  the  believer  all 
those  tempers  and  aifections  which  are  therein  de- 
scribed and  enjoined  as  being  like  God,  and  pleasing 
(  o  him.  Conformity  to  the  law  of  God  is  holiness, 
and  if  we  take  this  as  our  guide,  and  endeavor  to  effect  a 
correspondence  between  our  volitions,  desires,  words 
and  actions,  and  its  spirit,  we  are  becoming  holy  in 
its  estimation. 

But,  as  the  Word  of  God  is  the  rule  of  holiness,  so 
also  it  is  the  great  means  of  its  promotion  and  culti- 
vation. In  the  first  place,  it  clearly  and  forcibly  pre- 
sents us  with  a  statement  of  the  whole  duty  of  man. 
If  any  one  Welshes  to  be  informed  what  God's  require- 
ments are,  he  here  finds  the  knowledge  which  he 
seeks.     Every  precept,  every  principle,  every  exhor- 


S  AXCTIFIC  ATION.  85 

tatioii,  every  injunction,  wliich  can  place  duty  before 
the  mind,  is  found  on  tliese  sacred  pages.  No  case 
can  occur  of  doubt  or  uncertainty,  wliicli  cannot  be 
fully  directed  and  decided  by  the  Word  of  God,  when 
that  Word  is  examined  in  a  teachable  and  candid 
spirit.  But  not  content  with  the  naked  precept,  or 
the  mere  statement  of  duty,  the  Word  of  God  pre- 
sents the  most  affecting  and  powerful  considerations 
to  its  discharge.  It  not  only  presents  arguments  to 
our  reason,  and  precepts  which  commend  themselves 
to  our  sense  of  right,  but  it  addresses  the  most  power- 
ful appeals  to  our  affections,  and  strikes  every  chord 
of  feeling  which  is  strung  across  the  soul.  Now  it 
appeals  to  the  affection  of  love  —  now  to  that  of  fear. 
It  inspires  our  hope,  it  enkindles  our  desire.  It  adapts 
itself  to  all  our  necessities,  temptations,  despondencies 
and  sorrows.  It  stirs  the  deep  w^aters  of  conscience, 
and  speaks  peace  to  the  tempest  which  it  has  excited. 
While,  by  its  comprehensive  and  inexorable  requi- 
sitions, it  brings  forth  from  the  soul,  the  earnest,  the 
almost  despairing  inquiry,  "Who  is  sufficient  for  these 
things?"  it  reveals  a  sympatliizing  and  all-sufficient 
Saviour,  who  says,  "  My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee." 
It  also  not  only  presents  holiness  in  its  abstract  form, 
but  embodied  in  a  real  character  of  perfect  excellence. 
In  the  ancient  saints,  but  above  all,  in  the  Divine 
Redeemer,  the  holiness  which  God  requires  is  mani- 
fested in  a  form  which  appeals  to  our  sympathies, 
challenges  our  admiration,  and  wins  our  love.  An 
ancient  philosopher  once  exclaimed,  "  O  Virtue ! 
couldest  thou  be  embodied,  all  men  would  adore 
thee!"     In   the   person   of  our   Lord   Jesus  Christ, 


86  CHRISTOUR 

virtue  has  been  embodied ;  and  though  all  men  do 
not  admire  its  divine  beauty,  there  are  some  who  do 
pay  to  goodness  so  manifested,  the  deep  and  earnest 
homage  of  a  pious  soul.  The  contemplation  of  the 
perfect  character  of  Christ,  exerts  a  sanctify  ingpower 
over  the  true  Christian.  As  the  constant  study  of  the 
best  models  in  the  arts  refines  the  taste,  and  cultivates 
the  imagination,  so  the  contemplation  of  the  moral 
beauty  of  his  character,  who  linked  Deity  with  hu- 
manity in  perfect  though  mysterious  union,  exerts  alike 
influence  upon  the  moral  sensibilities  of  the  regenera- 
ted soul,  and  produces  a  likeness  to  the  sublime 
original,  which  shall  finally  be  made  perfect  and  en- 
during. 

Thus,  by  its  holy  precepts,  perfect  rules  of  duty, 
and  exhortations  to  holiness  ;  by  its  promises  of  divine 
assistance  in  the  work  of  mortifying  sin,  and  increas- 
ing in  holiness ;  by  solemn  warnings  against  trans- 
gression, and  above  all,  by  the  glorious  and  perfect 
model  and  example  which  it  furnishes,  of  the  holiness 
which  it  requires,  the  Word  of  God  becomes,  through 
the  illuminating  influences  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  the 
great  means  of  promoting  the  work  of  sanctification 
in  the  renewed  soul.  That  this  is  true,  is  proved  by 
experience.  The  ages  of  the  Church,  when  piety  has 
been  most  deep  and  earnest,  when  there  has  been  the 
most  lively  faith,  and  growing  holiness,  have  been 
those  when  the  Word  of  God  was  most  thoroughly 
studied,  and  most  devotedly  loved.  The  men  who 
have  been  most  exalted  in  Christian  attainment,  have 
been  men  who  were  "  mighty  in  the  Scrijjturesy  We 
have  seen  believers  in  very  humble  spheres,  and  with 


S  A  N  C  T  I  F  I  O  A  T  I  O  N .  87 

very  few  privileges,  far  removed  from  the  great  centers 
of  religious  knowledge  and  activity,  who  exliibited  a 
degree  of  spiritual  cultivation  and  attainment,  which 
would  have  been  extraordinary,  but  that  it  was  found 
that  their  seclusion  from  other  sources  of  knowledge, 
had  driven  them  to  the  pure  Word  of  God,  and  made 
them  diligent  students  of  its  sublime  truths  and  holy 
precepts. 

The  multiplication  even  of  religious  books  may  be 
an  evil,  and  certainly  will  be,  if  it  tends  to  draw  the 
mind  away  from  the  daily  perusal  of  the  living  ora- 
cles of  God.  That  there  is  less  reading  of  the  Bible 
in  these  days,  than  in  those  of  our  fathers,  we  fear 
cannot  be  questioned,  and  its  results  are  plainly  dis- 
cernible. The  instruction  of  the  family  in  the  Word 
of  God  is  not  so  generally  and  scrupulously  attended 
to  by  Christian  parents,  and  while  there  may  be  much 
reading  and  study  about  the  Bible,  there  is  not  so 
much  reading  and  study  of  the  Bible.  Piety  is  a 
more  learned,  but  a  more  frigid  piety  ;  and  advance- 
ment in  knowledge  has  been  by  no  means  attended  by 
a  corresponding  advancement  in  holiness.  Write  it 
upon  your  closet,  dear  reader ;  write  it  upon  your 
heart ;  "  I  cannot  be  eminently  holy  without  constant 
help  from  the  Word  of  God."  The  Saviour  revealed 
the  great  secret  of  spiritual  life  in  one  prayer  for  his 
people  :  "  Sanctify  them  through  thy  truth,  thy  word 
is  truth." 

The  experience  of  every  Christian  has  already 
taught  him  that  prayer  is  a  great  means  of  sanctiiica- 
tion.  By  it,  the  mind  is  more  fully  impressed  with  a 
eense  of  divine  things,  our  reverence  for  God  is  deep- 


88  C  H  R  I  S  T     O  U  R 

ened,  our  desires  for  spiritual  blessings  stimulated,  and 
our  dread  of  sin  greatly  increased.  It  is  the  reniai'k 
of  an  old  English  divine,  that  ''  praying  will  make  a 
man  leave  sinning,  or  sinning  will  make  him  leave 
praying."  But  we  speak  only  of  sincere  and  earnest 
prayer,  not  of  that  poor  counterfeit  with  which  numy 
quiet  their  consciences,  and  try  to  cheat  their  God. 
Says  good  old  Jeremy  Taylor  :  "  Can  we  expect  that 
our  sins  shall  be  washed  by  a  lazy  prayer  ?  Can 
an  indiiferent  prayer  quench  the  flames  of  hell,  or 
rescue  us  from  eternal  sorrow  ?  Is  lust  so  soon  over- 
come, that  the  very  naming  of  it,  can  master  it  ?  Is  the 
devil  so  slight  and  easy  an  enemy,  that  he  will  fly 
away  from  us  at  the  first  word  spoken  without  power, 
and  without  vehemence  ?  Read  and  attend  to  the  ac- 
cents of  the  prayers  of  saints,  '  I  cried  day  and  night 
unto  thee,  O  Lord !  My  soul  refused  comfort ;  my  throat 
is  dry  with  calling  upon  God,  my  knees  are  weak  through 
fasting ;'  '  I  will  not  let  thee  go,  until  thou  bless  me,' 
said  Jacob  to  the  angel.  Eead  this  account  of  a  pray- 
er from  one  of  the  early  fathers :  '  Being  destitute  of 
all  help,  I  threw  myself  down  at  the  feet  of  Jesus ;  I 
w^atered  his  feet  with  tears,  and  wiped  them  with  my 
hair,  and  mortified  the  lust  of  my  flesh  with  the  ab- 
stinence and  hungry  diet  of  many  weeks.  I  remem- 
ber that  in  my  crying  to  God,  I  did  frequently  join 
the  night  to  the  day,  and  never  did  restrain  to  call, 
or  cease  from  beating  my  breast,  till  the  mercy  of  the 
Lord  brought  to  me  peace,  and  freedom  from  tempta- 
tion. After  many  tears,  and  my  eyes  fixed  in  heaven, 
I  thought  myself  sometimes  encircled  with  troops  of 
angels,  aiul  then  at  last  I  sang  to  God.     We  will  run 


SANCTIFICATION.  89 

after  tliee,  unto  tlie  smell  and  delicionsness  of  tliy  pre- 
cious ointments.' "  Fervency  and  importunity  of  pray- 
er are  essential  to  prevailing  with  God.  Says  Taylor 
again  :  "Though  your  person  be  as  gracious  as 
David's  or  Job's,  and  your  desires  as  holy  as  the  love 
of  angels,  and  your  necessities  great  as  a  new  peni- 
tent, yet  it  pierces  not  the  clouds,  unless  it  be  as  loud 
as  thunder,  passionate  as  the  cries  of  women,  and 
clamorous  as  necessity." 

A  true  prayer  is  always  heard  by  God.  And  al- 
though it  may  not  always  consist  with  his  wise  pur- 
poses to  grant  just  the  thing  for  which  we  ask,  yet  the 
very  asking  in  a  right  spirit  is  a  blessing  to  the  soul, 
for  it  enlarges  its  holy  desires,  excites  its  holy  affec- 
tions, and  stimulates  it  to  holy  actions.  Ko  man  ever 
truly  prayed  to  God  to  be  made  more  holy,  who  did 
not  find  an  answer  to  his  prayer ;  and  the  measure  of 
our  desires  is  often  the  measure  of  our  attainments. 

Prayer  then  is  one  great  means  of  sanctification. 
The  Christian  who  has  been  wrestling  with  God  with 
fervor  and  sincerity,  comes  forth  from  his  closet,  like 
Moses  from  the  mount,  with  a  spiritual  glory  on  his 
countenance,  with  strength  from  above  made  perfect 
in  his  weakness,  and  addresses  himself  again  to  the 
conflict  with  sin,  feeling  assured  that  he  "  shall  be  con- 
queror, and  more  than  conqueror,  through  him  that 
hath  loved  him." 

Eemember  this,  and  write  it  as  a  great  fact  upon 
your  heart :  I  cannot  increase  in  holiness  without  con- 
stant, sincere,  fervent  prayer. 

The  ordinances  of  the  house  of  God  are  means  of 
sanctification.     Its  hymns  of  praise,  sung  not  as  a 


90  C  H  R  I  S  T     O  U  B 

mere  musical  exercise  or  scientific  performance,  but 
"  with  melody  in  tlie  heart,  unto  the  Lord ;"  its  solemn 
prayers  ascending  on  the  wings  of  the  holy  Dove,  to 
dwell  with  God,  in  his  lofty  habitation ;  its  instruc- 
tions, wise,  timely,  practical,  and  pungent ;  its  medi- 
tations, solemn,  sweet,  and  sacred,  are  all  made  by  the 
Divine  Spirit,  means  of  promoting  holiness  in  the 
pious  heart.  But  he  who  would  experience  this  effect, 
must  come  to  the  house  of  God  for  that  very  pur- 
pose, and  bring  with  him  a  frame  of  mind  adapted  to 
the  due  reception  of  a  blessing.  An  indifferent,  critic- 
al, captious,  or  somnolent  hearer,  will  not  be  sancti- 
fied by  the  services  of  the  sanctuary. 

The  dispensations  of  Divine  Providence  are  also 
means  of  sanctification.  "  We  know,"  says  the  Apos- 
tle Paul,  "  that  all  things  w^ork  together  for  good,  to 
them  that  love  God."  All  the  events  which  occur  in 
the  varied  lot  of  man,  by  the  appointment  of  God, 
tend  to  promote  the  spiritual  welfare  of  his  people. 
Even  those  things  which  are  in  themselves  evil,  are 
overruled  by  him,  and  made  sources  of  good.  Thus 
afflictions,  though  they  seem  not  for  the  present  to  be 
joyous,  but  grievous,  yet  work  out  the  peaceable  fruits 
of  righteousness,  to  them  who  are  exercised  thereby. 
Trials  call  •  into  active  exercise,  and  strengthen  the 
rarest  Christian  virtues.  Faith,  submission,  humility, 
patience,  are  choice  plants  of  grace,  which  grow 
most  luxuriantly  in  the  soil  which  has  been  well 
watered  with  the  dews  of  sorrow.  Afflictions  "  hum- 
ble the  pride  of  the  people  of  God,  awaken  their  vigi- 
lance, make  them  feel  their  weakness,  create  a  stronger 
abhorrence  of  sin,  and  an  increasing  indifference  to 


S  A  N  C  T  I  F  I  C  A  T  I  O  N  .  91 

earthly  things  ;  inspire  meek  submission  to  the  will  of 
God,  and,  leading  the  thoughts  to  heaven,  stir  up  long- 
ing desires  for  the  peace  which  awaits  them  there,  and 
for  the  pure  joys  of  religion,  which  are  earnest  of  its 
felicity. 

"  The  path  of  sorrow,  and  tliat  path  alone, 
Leads  to  the  land,  where  sorrow  is  unknown." 

But  unsanctified  afflictions,  only  leave  the  soul 
harder  and  more  callous.  For  the  substance  which  is 
not  melted,  is  only  hardened  by  the  flames  of  the  fur- 
nace, and  the  stain  which  is  not  thus  burned  out,  is 
only  more  deeply  and  hopelessly  engrained. 

We  have  thus  alluded,  to  the  prominent  means  of 
Sanctification,  which  have  been  provided  by  God 
through  the  mediation  of  his  Son,  and  which  the 
Divine  Spirit  uses  in  enlightening  and  purifying  all 
believers.  They  are  all  in  your  hands,  dear  readers. 
And  if  you  are  not  growing  in  grace,  it  is  not  because 
you  have  not  the  Word  of  God,  the  mercy  seat,  the 
ordinances  of  the  sanctuary,  and  the  lessons  of  Di- 
vine Providence,  to  aid  you  in  the  struggle  after  in- 
creasing holiness.  It  is  probably  because  you  are  too 
much  engrossed  with  the  business  or  the  pleasures  of 
this  sinful  world,  to  make  that  use  and  improvement 
of  your  privileges  which  is  essential  to  tJie  growth 
and  developement  of  the  life  of  God  in  your  soul. 
We  exhort  you  then,  fellow  Christians,  to  live  above 
the  world :  not  to  be  unduly  conformed  to  its  princi- 
ples, its  maxims,  its  fashions,  its  amusements.  They 
are  inconsistent  with  your  high  vocation,  and  un- 
friendly to  your  progress  in  the  divine  life.   You  can- 


92  SANCTIFICATION. 

not  serve  God  and  mammon.  Yon  cannot  preserve  the 
friendship  of  the  world,  and  the  love  of  Christ.  Yon 
mnst  come  ont  and  be  separate,  and  tonch  not  the  un- 
clean thing,  before  yon  can  have  any  good  evidence, 
in  your  growing  likeness  to  him,  that  you  have  been 
made  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Lord  Almighty. 

We  exhort  you  also,  to  exalt  greatly  your  standard 
of  Christian  character  and  attainment.  We  would  pro- 
voke in  you  a  noble  ambition  to  be  better  Christians. 
We  would  inflame  your  holy  desires,  and  rouse  your 
devout  aspirations,  by  setting  before  you  the  glorious 
prizes  w^hich  are  promised  to  the  victorious  Christian. 
We  would  remind  you  that  the  day  is  far  spent,  in 
which  many  of  you  can  secure  these,  and  that  the 
shadows  of  the  evening  may  soon  fall  across  your  path. 
We  would  remind  you  that  a  great  work  must  be  done 
in  your  soul,  dear  reader,  before  it  is  fit  for  heaven — 
before  it  can  take  a  place  near  the  throne,  and  shine 
as  a  brilliant  star  in  the  magnificent  constellations  of 
the  redeemed.  And  we  would  urge  you,  therefore, 
to  be  up  and  doing.  You  profess  to  be  a  wrestler  for 
spiritual  prizes.  The  glass  may  be  almost  run  out, 
and  there  is  a  garland  which  you  have  not  won.  You 
are  a  traveller  zion-ward.  The  night  shades  may  be 
gathering  round  you,  and  there  are  yet  streams  to  be 
forded,  and  mountains  to  be  climbed.  You  are  an 
enlisted  soldier  of  the  Cross.  The  day  of  battle  is 
drawing  to  a  close,  and  the  victory  is  not  fully  won. 
Up,  pilgrim  !  and  hasten  to  your  home.  Rouse  thee, 
wrestler!  and  struggle  for  the  garland.  Fight  on, 
thou  champion  of  the  Lord !  till  the  last  foe  has  fallen 
before  thee,  and  thine  eternal  crown  is  won ! 


VI. 
SANCTIFICATION 


ITS     DEGREE. 

Having  already  considered  the  nature,  and  tlie 
means  of  Sanctification,  we  now  proceed  to  the  last 
point  of  interest  connected  with  this  subject,  i.  e.  the 
degree  of  its  attainment  in  the  present  life. 

Any  one  who  is  familiar  with  the  theological  dis- 
cussions of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  need  not  be 
told  that  the  controversy  on  this  point,  has  held  a 
prominent  place  among  them.  The  doctrine  of  entire 
Sanctification,  or  a  perfect  freedom  from  all  sin  in  the 
present  life,  has  been  promulgated  by  a  certain  school 
or  class  of  thinkers,  and  has  obtained  some  currency 
in  portions  of  the  Church.  Yet  it  is  a  remarkable 
fact,  that  those  who  have  been  the  most  strenuous  in 
their  advocacy  of  the  attainment  of  perfect  holiness  in 
this  life,  have  not  always  been  the  liappiest  illustra- 
tions of  their  own  theory,  but  have  occasionally  mani- 
fested the  existence  of  those  dead  flies  in  the  apothe- 


94:  C  H  R  I  S  T      O  U  R 

caries'  ointment,  wliich,  while  they  do  not  destroy  its 
real  curative  properties,  yet  too  often  very  seriously 
modify  the  character  of  its  fragrance.  We  have  not 
yet  been  so  happy  as  to  find  among  these  theorists,  a 
practical  exemplification  of  their  confessedly  beautiful 
and  attractive  system. 

The  scriptural  doctrine  on  the  subject  of  Sanctifi- 
cation,  is,  that  we  are  not  warranted  in  the  expecta- 
tion, that  perfect  freedom  from  sin  is  ever  attained  "l)y 
the  regenerated  soul  in  the  present  life.  That  it  is  a 
progressive  work,  constantly  carried  on  in  the  heart, 
until  it  is  perfected  in  heaven. 

Now,  in  reference  to  the  doctrine  of  entire  Sanctifi- 
cation  in  this  life,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  that  at  the 
first  glance,  there  is  much  about  it  which  is  attractive, 
and  beautiful,  and  consoling.  To  every  real  Christian, 
the  daily  sense  of  personal  sinfulness,  is  the  heaviest 
burden  on  his  soul.  Even  though  he  may  hope  that 
he  has  been  truly  born  again,  and  by  faith  in  Christ,. 
freed  from  the  condemnation  of  the  law,  yet  a  con- 
sciousness of  his  many  and  great  imperfections,  his 
inconsistencies  of  life  and  conversation,  his  yieldings 
to  temptation,  and  his  sore  struggles  with  the  enemy, 
often  bring  tears  of  anguish  from  his  eyes,  and  fervent 
desires  for  that  state  of  freedom  from  sin  and  tempta- 
tion, which  is  revealed  beyond  the  grave.  The  idea 
of  entire  Sanctification,  is  to  him  the  most  delightful 
and  glorious,  w^hich  his  mind  can  contemplate — and 
there  is  nothing  about  this  theory,  calculated  to  shock 
and  corrupt  liis  moral  sensibilities.  Yet,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  doctrine  to  which  we  allude,  may  exert  a 
baneful  influence  upon  the  Christian  character,  by  fos- 


SANCTIFICATION.  95 

tering  a  spirit  of  pride  and  security,  leading  the 
believer  to  feel  that  he  has  already  apprehended,  and 
has  become  already  perfect,  and  thus  relaxing  his  dili- 
gence, his  prayerfulness,  and  his  fidelity  in  the  great 
task  of  working  out  his  complete  salvation,  and 
making^  his  callinoc  and  election  sure. 

If  the  doctrine  of  the  actual  attainment  of  entire 
freedom  from  sin,  is  not  taught  in  the  Scriptures,  then 
it  is  not  a  truth  of  God — should  not  be  embodied  in 
any  creed  or  system,  professing  to  be  based  upon  his 
word,  and  cannot  exert  a  salutary  influence  upon  the 
Christian  character,  and  attainments  of  his  people. 

Let  us  then,  in  a  candid  and  prayerful  spirit,  exam- 
ine those  arguments  which  are  relied  upon  by  the  ad- 
vocates of  this  doctrine,  for  the  support  of  their  theory. 

The  first  argument  which  we  shall  notice,  is  this  rv 
That  God  has  made  ample  provision  in  the  gospel  plan  \ 
of  salvation,  for  the  perfect  deliverance  of  his  people  I 
from  sin. 

You  will  find  in  the  writings  of  those  who  maintain 
the  doctrine  of  entire  Sanctification  in  the  present 
life,  that  this  argunient  is  advanced,  as  if  it  were  a 
truth  peculiar  to  their  system.  But  this  is  a  most  un- 
candid  and  untruthful  representation.  We  know  of 
no  body  of  evangelical  Christians ;  we  know  of  no 
evangelical  writer,  who  do  not  hold  to  and  rejoice  in 
this  glorious  truth.  It  is  "  one  of  the  grand  peculi- 
arities of  the  Gospel."  But  it  is  one  thing  to  say,  that 
God  has  made  full  provision  in  the  plan  of  salvation, 
for  the  entire  redemption  of  his  people  from  all  sin, 
and  quite  another  thing  to  say  that  this  complete  re- 
demption will  be  attained  in  this  life.     God  has  made 


96  CHRIST      OUR 

a  complete  provision  in  the  gospel  plan  of  salvation, 
so  far  as  the  sufficiency  of  the  work  of  Christ  is  con- 
cerned, for  the  pardon,  justification,  and  redemption 
of  every  sinner.  Christ  is  set  forth  as  a  sufficient 
Saviour,  an  adequate  propitiatory  sacrifice  for  the  sins 
of  the  whole  world.  But  does  this  fact,  this  glorious 
fact,  prove  that  every  sinner  will  be  brought  to  re- 
pentance, faith,  and  final  salvation  ?  We  grant  that 
there  is  no  deficiency  in  the  means  of  Sanctification, 
which  God  has  provided  for  his  people,  to  which  their 
failure  of  the  attainment  of  perfect  holiness  may  be 
charged.  In  like  manner,  the  condemnation  of  the 
finally  lost,  cannot  be  charged  upon  any  deficiency  in 
the  provision  which  God  has  made  in  the  plan  of  sal- 
vation. Yet  it  is  a  fact  of  daily  occurrence,  which  no 
one  will  venture  to  question,  that  in  spite  of  the  ample 
and  adequate  provisions  of  the  Gospel,  multitudes  oi 
men  do  go  down  to  everlasting  destruction,  from  the 
presence  of  the  Lord,  and  the  glory  of  his  power. 
Therefore  we  say,  that  the  mere  fact  that  God  has  made 
full  and  adequate  provision  for  the  entire  deliverance 
of  his  people  from  sin,  does  not  prove  that  this  perfect 
deliverance  will  take  place  on  this  side  of  heaven. 

But  the  advocates  of  the  doctrine  under  considera- 
'  tion,  assert  that  this  provision  is  sufficient  for  the 
!  entire  sanctification  of  believers  in  the  present  life. 
We  are  willing  to  admit  this,  but  it  does  not  relieve 
the  question  of  actual  attainment,  of  difficulty.  For 
it  is  equally  true,  and  cannot  be  denied,  that  God  has 
also  equally  provided  for  their  entire  Sanctification 
during  the  present  day,  or  the  present  hour.  If  the 
intrinsic  efficacy  of  the  power  of  the  Divine  Spirit, 


8  A  N  C  T  I  F  1  C  A  T  ION.  97 

and  all  the  array  of  means  wliicli  God  has  provided 
for  the  complete  deliverance  from  sin,  be  adduced  as 
an  evidence  that  this  deliverance  will  be  effected 
during  the  present  life,  it  can  with  perfect  truthfulness 
and  logical  accuracy  be  adduced,  to  prove  that  it  can 
as  well  be  effected  during  the  present  day  or  moment. 
But  do  believers  thus  attain  to  entire  Sanctification  i 
'No  one  will  venture  to  assert  this.  But  if  this  is  not 
the  case  with  these  same  adequate,  and  intrinsically 
efficacious  means ;  if  the  completion  of  this  work  is, 
from  whatever  causes,  delayed  or  retarded  for  a 
shorter,  why  may  it  not  be  for  a  longer  period  ;  if  it 
may  not  take  place  for  years,  why  may  it  not  be  re- 
tarded for  the  brief  space  of  this  mortal  life  ? 

The  mere  fact  then,  that  the  provisions  of  grace  are 
sufficient  for  the  entire  deliverance  of  believers  from 
sin,  does  not  necessarily  establish  the  truth  of  the 
doctrine,  that  such  deliverance  will  be  actually  at- 
tained in  this  life. 

Again ;  it  is  claimed  as  a  peculiarity  of  that  system 
which  we  are  considering,  that  there  is  nothing  in  the 
nature  of  the  case  to  forbid  the  assertion,  that  perfect 
holiness  is  attainable  in  this  life.  But  it  is  not  denied, 
according  to  our  knowledge,  that  there  is  a  sense  in 
which  this  is  true.  We  do  not  claim  that  entire  Sanc- 
tification is  not  at^inable ;  all  we  say  is,  that  it  is  not 
attained.  The  attain ableness  of  a  thing,  is  very  dif- 
ferent from  its  actual  attainment.  There  is  nothing  in 
the  provisions  of  grace,  on  the  one  hand,  or  the  ca- 
pacities of  the  soul  on  the  other,  which  make  it  im- 
possible, in  the  nature  of  things,  that  entire  Sanctifica- 
tion may  be  attained.  There  is  no  impossibility  in  its 
5 


98  CHRIS  T      OUR 

kttainment,  such  as  to  excuse  Christians  from  striving 
to  attain  to  it.  But  we  contend  that  a  thing  may  be' 
■attainable,  and  yet  may  never  be  attained. 

]N'o  man  could  say  that  it  was  impossible,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  for  an  individual  to  amass  a  fortune 
of  a  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  and  yet  it  is  very  safe 
to  say  that  no  man  will  actually  attain  to  this  state  of 
enormous  wealth.  In  like  manner,  no  man  will  deny, 
that  under  the  Gospel,  salvation  is  attainable  by  all 
men.  It  is  freely  offered  to  their  acceptance  ;  all  the 
means  are  furnished ;  the  way  is  opened,  and  every 
one  may  secure  the  blessing ;  but  how  many  there 
are  who  never  make  it  theirs.  Salvation,  then,  though 
attainable  by  all,  is,  in  a  majority  of  cases  not  at- 
tained. 

When  we  say  that  a  thing  is  unattainable,  what  do 
we  mean? — Simply  that  there  is  an  impossibility  in  the 
nature  of  the  case — it  is  beyond  our  power.  In  such  a 
case  we  are  not  guilty,  or  deserving  of  censure  for  its 
non-attainment.  For  instance,  omnipotence,  omni- 
science, or  ubiquity,  are  unattainable  by  man.  They 
are  inconsistent  with  his  finite  nature,  and  utterly 
beyond  his  reach.  But  he  is  not  deserving  of  censure 
for  this — it  is  no  fault  of  his. 

In  this  sense  of  the  term,  we  do  not  hold  that  entire 
Sanctification  is  unattainable  in  the  present  life.  There 
is  nothing  inconsistent  with  the  nature  of  things, 
nothing  in  the  provisions  of  the  Gospel,  the  means  of 
grace,  or  the  capacities  of  the  renewed  soul,  which 
positively  forbid  its  attainableness.  But  this  is  not 
saying  that  it  is  actually  attained,  nor  does  it  give  us  a 
reasonable  ground  for  the  expectation  that  it  will  be 


SANCTIFICATION.  99 

attained  in  the  present  life.  AVe  can  say  the  same 
things  of  the  nniversal  attainment  of  individual  sal- 
vation.     It  is  attainable,  and  yet  it  is  not  attained. 

Again. — It  is  argued  by  the  advocates  of  this  doc-{ 
trine,  that  it  is  implied  in  the  promises" of  God  to  be- 
lievers. It  is  said  that  there  are  many  and  very  pi-e- 
cions  promises  in  the  I>ible,  in  which  a  state  of  entire 
freedom  from  sin,  is  promised  to  God's  people.  There 
is  one  passage,  especially,  which  is  relied  on  to  sup- 
port this  idea — the  promise  of  the  new  covenant.  "I 
will  put  my  laws  into  their  mind,  and  write  them  in 
their  hearts,  and  I  will  be  to  them  a  God,  and  they 
shall  be  to  me  a  people,  and  all  shall  know  me,  from 
the  least  to  the  greatest,  for  I  will  be  merciful  to  their 
unrighteousness,  and  their  sins  will  I  remember  no 
more."  It  is  claimed  that  the  fulfilment  of  this  and 
kindred  promises,  implies  the  effecting  in  believers  a 
confirmed  state  of  perfect  holiness  —  an  entire  con- 
formity to  the  divine  law.  But  we  ask,  if  this  is 
necessarily  true  ?  May  this  promise  not  be  fulfilled 
in  a  degree  in  this  present  life,  without  the  attainment 
of  entire  Sanctification  on  the  part  of  the  Christian  ? — 
May  not  God's  law  be  written  upon  the  heart  of  a 
Christian,  without  that  law  is  perfectly  obeyed  in 
thought,  word,  and  deed?  Can  there  be  no  obedience 
unless  there  is  perfect  obedience  ?  On  this  supposition, 
no  man  can  be  a  Christian  at  all,  who  is  not  a  perfect 
Christian.  According  to  this  reasoning,  there  can  l)e 
no  sanctification,  unless  it  is  entire.  The  advocates  of 
the  doctrine  under  consideration,  seem  to  imply,  in 
reasoning  from  the  promises  of  God,  that  these  promi- 


100  C  H  K  I  S  T     O  U  R 

ses  cannot  be  fulfilled,  unless  tliey  are  completely 
and  entirely  fulfilled. 

But  if  this  be  true,  then  there  is  a  part  of  the  pas- 
sage which  we  have  quoted,  as  one  on  which  they 
place  great  reliance,  which  must  involve  them  in  diffi- 
culty. It  is  this,  "All  shall  know  me,  from  the  least 
unto  the  greatest."  'No  one  will  say  that  this  promise 
has  been  perfectly  fulfilled. 

It  is  not  true  in  a  national  or  universal  sense,  that 
all  men  really  know  God.  It  has  been  fulfilled  in  a 
degree,  and  is  going  on  to  complete  fulfillment.  Yet 
God  is  faithful  who  has  promised,  in  this  respect. 
Therefore  he  may  be  faithful  in  respect  to  those  promi- 
ses which  relate  to  the  entire  sanctification  of  his 
people,  while  those  promises  are  fulfilled  by  degrees,  in 
their  progressive  deliverance  from  sin,  and  steady  ap- 
proximation to  the  stature  of  perfect  men  in  Christ 
Jesus. 

It  is  indeed  a  precious  promise,  that  Jesus  "  shall 
save  his  people  from  their  sins."  But  is  this  promise 
perfectly  fulfilled  ?  Are  all  the  people  of  God  entire- 
ly rescued  from  sin  ?  They  are  indeed  saved  from  the 
guilt,  for  "  there  is  therefore  now  no  condemnation  to 
them  which  are  in  Christ  Jesus ; "  "  whosoever  believeth 
in  him  is  not  condemned."  But  are  they  all  entirely 
delivered  from  the  power  of  sin  ?  Are  there  none  who 
like  a  godly  man  of  old,  still  find  a  law  in  their  mem- 
bers warring  against  the  law  in  their  minds,  and  bring- 
ing them  into  captivity  to  the  law  of  sin  ?  Are  there 
none  who  are  struggling  with  temptation,  beset  sorely 
by  spiritual  adversaries,  and  often  fainting  in  the  strife  ? 
Does  not  the  cry  often  come  from  the  burdened  heart. 


S  A  N  C  T  I  F  I  c  A  T  ION.  101 

"  Who  is  sufficient  for  tliese  tliini!:s  ?  "     Is  not 

"The  rapture  of  pardon,  oft  niinglcd  with  fears, 
And  the  cup  of  thanksgiving  with  penitent  tears." 

All,  yes  !  The  good  work  of  deliverance  is 
begun — the  condemnation  is  taken  off — the  curse  is 
removed.  Sinai  thunders  no  more  around  the  sinner's 
head,  nor  darts  its  vengeful  lightnings  across  his  path  ; 
but  the  power  of  sin  is  not  fully  destroyed — the  victory 
is  not  yet  complete — great  progress  is  yet  to  be  made 
in  holiness,  before  the  believer  can  walk  in  white,  in 
the  city  of  God  ;  and  the  last  stains  of  sin  must  be 
washed  away  in  the  flowings  of  Jordan,  before  the 
brilliant  diadem  of  perfect  holiness,  and  unfading 
glory,  shall  be  placed  upon  the  believer's  head  at  the 
great  coronation  day. 

The  promises  of  God,  then,  do  not  sustain  the  doc- 
trine that  entire  sanctification  is  attained  in  the  pres- 
ent life.  They  do  indeed  imply  and  assure  us  that 
perfect  holiness  shall  eventually  be  the  portion  of  the 
believer,  but  there  is  not  a  solitary  promise  which  as- 
signs the  present  life  as  the  limit,  during  which  this 
glorious  portion  shall  be  secured.  That  it  shall  ulti 
mately  be  theirs,  is  a  truth,  and  one  of  great  power  to 
strengthen  and  comfort  them,  while  struggling  through 
this  wilderness. 

Again,   an   argument  in   support    of  the   doctrine 
we  are  are  considering,  is  drawn  from  the  prayers 
f  Christians. 

It  is  said  that  Christians  pray,  and  are  to  be  exhort- 
ed to  pray,  for  entire  freedom  from  sin  and  perfect 
holiness ;  and  how  can  tliey  pray,  or  how  can  they  be 


c 


102  CHRIST     O  U  K 

exhorted  to  pray  for  that  which  they  cannot  receive  ? 
This  is  an  argument  much  relied  on,  and  often  used, 
by  those  who  differ  from  us  on  this  subject.  They  say 
God  has  promised  to  hear  and  answer  the  prayer  of 
faith,  and  that  Christians  do  pray  to  be  entirely  de- 
livered from  the  power  of  sin.  IS'ow  we  grant  that 
Christians  do  and  ought  to  pray  for  entire  conformity 
to  the  divine  law,  and  we  grant  that  God  will  and  does 
always  hear  and  answer  the  prayer  of  faith  ;  yea,  that 
he  will  give  us  abundantly  above  all  that  we  ask  or 
even  think.  But  we  ask,  must  the  answer  to  prayer  ne- 
cessarily be  confined  to  this  life,  to  render  God  faithful 
to  his  promises.  We  do  expect,  confidently,  that  God 
will  hear  and  answer  our  prayers,  for  entire  deliver- 
ance from  sin,  and  it  is  a  shame  to  us,  with  the  grounds 
for  this  confidence  so  fully  afforded  us,  that  our  pray- 
ers are  so  faithless,  and  our  endeavors  so  feeble.  AYe 
do  expect  to  be  like  our  blessed  Saviour  when  we  see 
liim  as  he  is.  And  is  not  this  fidelity  on  God's  part, 
to  his  promises  to  hear  and  answer  prayer  ?  Where 
has  he  ever  told  us,  that  he  will  answer  our  prayers 
within  a  given  time  ?  You  can  no  more  prove  that 
God  has  promised  to  grant  to  his  people,  in  answer  to 
prayer,  the  blessings  of  entire  sanctification,  within 
the  limits  of  the  present  life,  than  you  can  prove  that 
he  has  promised  to  do  it  at  the  moment  when  the 
prayer  ascends  to  heaven. 

Suppose  we  take  the  ground  of  our  opponents.  It 
is  my  duty  to  pray  for  entire  sanctification.  God  has 
promised  to  answer  prayer.  I  pray !  If  an  hour 
elapses,  and  I  am  not  perfectly  holy,  then  God  is  not 
faithful  to  his  promise.     ]^o  — says  my  opponent,  you 


S  A.  N  C  T  [  F  I  (;  A  T  ION.  103 

have  no  power  to  limit  the  fultiUmeut  of  the  divine 
promise  to  a  single  hour.  Ihit  1  have  just  the  same 
right  to  limit  it  to  a  shorter,  that  lie  has  to  a  longer 
period.  He  limits  it  to  lite,  and  1  limit  it  to  a  day  or 
an  hour.  And  he  cannot  show  any  more  authority 
tor  limiting  God  and  his  promises  to  a  year,  or  two 
years,  or  twenty  years,  or  life,  (which  may  not  be  a 
day),  than  I  can  for  limiting  it  to  a  day  or  an  hour. 
The  truth  is,  that  God  has  not  himself  fixed  the  limit, 
and  therefore  neither  my  opponent  or  myself  have 
any  right  to  do  so. 

Prayer  is  answered  really,  when  it  is  answered  in 
God's  own  time.  "  The  patriarchs  longed  and  prayed 
for  the  coming  of  the  Messiah,  and  were  not  their 
prayers  as  really  answered  by  his  coming  after  so 
long  a  time,  as  if  he  had  come  before  ?"  God  will 
answer  every  prayer  of  a  true  believer.  Many  a 
pious  parent  has  lifted  up  his  heart  in  prayer  for  his 
child,  that  God  would  convert  him  from  sin  to  holi- 
ness, and  has  gone  down  to  his  grave  with  his  last 
breath  invoking  the  grace  of  God  in  behalf  of  a  still 
impenitent  son.  After  the  grass  has  waved  for  many 
summers  over  the  sleeping  father,  the  prodigal  is  re- 
claimed. Is  there  here  no  answer  to  prayer  ?  Has 
not  God  vindicated  at  once  his  fidelity  and  his  sover- 
eignty ?  The  time  and  the  mode  in  which  prayer 
shall  be  answered,  is  with  God  alone  ;  but  where  he 
has  promised,  heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but 
not  one  jot  or  title  shall  pass  from  his  word,  till  all  be 
fulfilled. 

Again,  the  advocates  of  the  doctrine  of  sinless  per-| 
fection  in  this  life,  argue  in  its  favor  from  sundry  pasy 


104:  CHRIST     O  L'  R 

sages  of  Scripture,  whicli  seem  to  declare  that  it  has 
in  some  instances  been  attained  in  the  present  life. 
There  are  places  in  which  the  old  Testament  saints 
are  spoken  of,  as  if  they  had  attained  to  a  state  of  per- 
fect holiness.  Job  is  often  spoken  of  as  a  perfect 
man.  David,  is  said  to  have  been  a  man  after  God's 
own  heart,  and  to  have  followed  the  Lord  wdioUy,  ex- 
cept in  the  matter  of  Uriah.  Paul  speaks  of  himself 
as  being  crucified  to  the  world,  and  living  only  in 
Christ.  A  bishop,  it  is  said,  must  be  blameless,  &c., 
&c.  Now  it  is  possible  to  make  the  Bible  teach  almost 
any  form  of  error,  by  taking  isolated  passages,  out  of 
their  connection,  and  interpreting  them  in  a  literal 
unrestricted  sense.  I  would  be  willing  to  undertake 
to  bring  scriptural  authority,  for  the  grossest  heresies, 
if  this  mode  of  adducing  evidence  is  allowed.  The 
question  is — Do  these  passages,  properly  intei-preted, 
teach  the  doctrine  imputed  to  them?  The  sacred 
writers  employ  other  like  terms  in  a  qualified  restrict- 
ed sense.  Thus  it  is  said  that  Joshua  took  the  whole 
land  of  Canaan,  though  some  parts  still  remained  in  the 
hands  of  the  native  tribes.  The  meaning  is,  that  no 
considerable  parts  remained  unsubdued,  and  that  he 
proceeded  unmolested  to  divide  the  land  among  the 
Israelites.  It  is  said,  that  Judah  was  wholly  carried 
away  captive,  though  a  remnant  continued  in  the  land. 
''Jerusalem  and  all  Judea,  and  the  region  round  about 
Jordan,  went  out  to  John  and  w^ere  baptized  of  him,'' 
which  means  that  there  was  a  general,  or  very  ex- 
tensive gathering  of  the  people  to  him.  Now  in  these 
passages,  the  words  are  obviously  to  be  taken  in  a  re- 
stricted and  qualified  sense.   This  is  equally  true  with 


SA  NOTIFICATION.  105 

those  which  relate  to  the  doctrine  of  entire  sanctiiica- 
tion.  Job  is  said  to  have  been  a  perfect  man ;  but 
was  he  without  a  fault?  AVas  the  matter  of  Uriah, 
the  only  Haw  in  the  Jioliness  of  David?  His  own  con- 
fessions prove  the  contrary.  A  bishop  must  be  blame- 
less?— Does  this  mean  that  a  man  cannot  be  a  minis- 
ter of  the  Gospel,  who  is  not  absolutely  sinless  ?  — 
Where  then  shall  one  be  found  worthy  to  bear  tlu^ 
office  ?  "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  from  all 
sin!" — Perfectionists  claim  this  as  a  strong  passage. 
But  it  proves  too  much  in  their  mode  of  inter23retation. 
What  it  says  of  Christians,  it  says  of  all,  and  it  is 
in  the  present  tense,  and  declares  that  all  believers 
are  now,  by  the  blood  of  Christ,  made  pure  from  all 
sin. 

•  ISTo  man  will  believe  this.  The  sense  of  the  passage 
then,  must  be  restricted.  Again;  "If  we  confess  our^ 
sins,  he  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  our  sins,  and  J 
cleanse  us  from  all  mirighteonsness."  The  absolute/ 
sense  is,  that  all  believers,  on  confession  of  sin  are  for- 
given, and  at  once  made  perfect  in  holiness.  This 
again  is  claiming  too  much  for  the  perfectionists,  who 
always  acknowledge  that  entire  holiness  is  only  at- 
tained by  a  favored  few.  There  must  then  be  a  lim- 
itation, a  restriction  of  the  sense  in  some  respect,  to 
preserve  the  integrity  of  the  record.  "  He  that  hath 
this  hope  in  him  purify etli  himself,  as  he  is  pure." 
As  Christ  is  pure.  This  is  absolute  perfection.  If  we 
interpret  on  the  principle  of  our  opponents,  this  pas- 
sage also  teaches,  that  every  believer  becomes,  at 
once,  as  pure  as  Christ  himself.  Restriction  again  is 
called  for,  and  must  be  applied  to  this  passage.  The 
5* 


106  CHRIST      OUR 

experience  and  observation  of  all,  prove  that  it  is  not 
absolutely  true.  If  the  immediate  attainment  of 
complete  purity  be  implied  in  this  passage,  it  is  pre- 
dicated of  all  Christians,  and  this  is  at  war  with  the 
plainest  facts.  If  it  teach,  as  we  claim,  that  it  means 
that  every  true  Christian  is  pursuing  such  a  course  of 
self-purification,  as  will  at  last  eventuate  in  his  com- 
plete likeness  to  Christ,  then  no  violence  is  done 
either  to  the  language  of  the  word  of  God,  or  that  of 
1  human  experience.  Another  passage  ;  "  Whosoever 
is  born  of  God  doth  not  commit  sin,  for  his  seed  re- 
jmaineth  in  him;  and  he  cannot  sin,  because  he  is 
born  of  God."  This  must  be  subjected  to  the  same 
principle  of  interpretation.  If  it  is  to  be  understood 
with  absolute  literalness,  it  declares  that  no  man  is  a 
Christian,  who  is  not  entirely  sinless.  This  would  at 
once  sweep  away  the  hopes  of  all  the  people  of  God. 

This  process  may  be  applied  to  all  the  passages 
which  are  relied  upon,  to  prove  the  doctrine  of  sinless 
perfection  in  the  present  life.  Taken  in  their  proper 
sense,  they  inculcate  no  such  doctrine,  but  only  de- 
clare what  is  the  general  belief  of  all  evangelical 
Christians,  as  to  the  nature  and  degree  of  the  work  of 
sanctification  in  the  heart  of  the  believer. 

It  remains  now  for  us  to  remark,  that  the  passages 
of  Scripture  relied  on  by  the  advocates  of  the  doctrine 
of  entire  sanctification  in  the  present  life,  not  only 
cannot  be  susceptible  of  an  interpretation  favorable  to 
their  views,  but  that  the  tenor  of  the  language  of 
the  Scriptures  generally,  is  hostile  to  the  error  which 
we  are  endeavoring  to  refute. 

If  there  is  any  truth  with  regard  to  the  life  of  God 


SANCTIFI  CATION.  107 

in  tlie  soul  of  man,  plainly  taught  in  the  Bible,  it  is 
tliat  this  life  is  progressive  in  its  nature.     It  commen- 
ces at  conversion,  and  proceeds  from  one  degree  of 
holiness  to  another,  until  it  is  made  perfect  and  com- 
plete, at  the  time  of  the  deliverance  of  the  believer 
from  his  body  of  death,  and  a  world  of  sin.    Tlie  Bible 
abounds  in  admonitions  to  grow  in  grace  and  know- « 
ledge  —  to  add  to  the  Christian  virtues,  and  "  forget- 
ting those  things  that  are  behind,  and  reaching  forth   \ 
unto  those  things  which  are  before,  to  press  toward 
the  mark  for  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in 
Jesus  Christ."     Says  the  Apostle  to  the  Philippians  ; 
"  Being  confident  of  this  very  thing,  that  he  which 
hath  begun  a  good  work  in  you,  will  perform  it  until 
the  day  of  Jesus  Christ."     The  work  of  sanctification 
would  be  completed  in  the  day  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 
So  said  the  Psalmist.     "  I  shall  be  satisfied,  O  Lord!  \ 
when  I  awake  with  thy  likeness."     "The  path  of  thev 
just  is  as  the  shining  light,  which  shineth  more  and/ 
more  unto  the  perfect  day." 

There  is  a  very  important  class  of  texts  which  favor ! 
our  views — those  which  represent  the  desires  of  Chris 
tians  after  holiness.  Desire  implies  that  the  good  as 
pired  after  is  still  future,  not  obtained.  "When  they 
are  said  to  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness,  it: 
implies  that  they  are  longing  after  holiness  not  yet' 
attained.  Said  David,  "  my  soul  thirsteth  for  God  ;''/ 
"As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water  brooks,  so  pant-i 
eth  my  soul  after  thee,  O  God!"  Strong  language 
this,  to  express  the  desires  of  the  renewed  and  par- 
tially sanctified  soul  for  greater  holiness. 

Pass  then  from  the  Scriptures  to  the  pages  of  the 


108  CHRIST     OUR 

soul.  Ask  the  lioliest  men  that  have  ever  lived,  what 
is  the  testimony  of  their  conscious  experience  on  this 
subject.  They  will  tell  you,  as  does  the  holy  man  of 
TUz:  "If  I  say  I  am  perfect,  it  shall  also  prove  me 
\perverse."  Tliey  will  tell  you  that  they  pray  witli 
the  pious  monarch  minstrel  of  Judea,  "My  soul 
cleaveth  to  the  dust,  quicken  thou  me  according  to 
thy  Word."  They  will  tell  you  with  Paul,  that  they 
find  "  a  law  in  their  members,  warring  against  the 
law  in  their  minds,  and  bringing  them  into  captivity 
to  the  law  of  sin."  They  find  sin  still  lurking  in  their 
hearts ;  they  are  but  partially  sanctified ;  they  may 
see  evidences  of  progress,  but  the  victory  is  not  yet 
wdh ;  they  are  to  fight  on  till  death,  before  the  un- 
fading laurel  of  the  more  than  conqueror,  shall  be 
worn  upon  their  brow. 

What,  then,  is  the  conclusion  to  which  we  come  on 
this  subject?  It  is  this :  that  though  there  is  nothing 
in  the  provisions  of  the  Gospel,  nor  the  properties  of 
the  human  soul,  absolutely  inconsistent  with  the  at- 
tainableness  of  entire  sanctification  in  this  life,  yet 
that,  neither  from  the  promises  of  God,  the  declara- 
tions of  the  Scriptures,  or  the  experience  of  Chris- 
tians, are  we  warranted  in  expecting  that  we  shall 
actually  attain  to  it  in  this  life.  We  believe  it  to  be 
a  progressive  work,  advancing  with  life,  begun,  con- 
tinued on  earth ;  perfected  in  heaven. 

Let  it  not  be  said,  then,  that  we  are  the  advocates 
of  imperfection.  ]^ot  so !  We  are  believers  in  the 
perfection  of  the  saints.  We  stand  on  the  rock  of  the 
promises  of  God.  We  do  expect  to  be  completely 
free  from  sin  !    We  do  expect  to  be  entirely  conformed 


S  ANCVriFIC  AT  ION.  109 

to  Christ.     We  do  not  look  for  tliis  to  be  tally  accom- 
plished, during  the  brief  space  of  this  mortal  life.    But 
what  is  this  life  ?     "  It  is  even  a  vapor,  which  appear- 
eth  for  a  little  while,  and  then  vanisheth  away."    Xo 
advocate  of  perfection  can  be  more  contident  than  we 
are,  of  our  ultimate  perfection.    "  We  know  that  when  A 
he  shall  appear,  we  shall  be  like  him."     "  For  now   ' 
we  see  through  a  glass,  darkly,  but  then  face  to  face.  A 
ISTow  I  know  in  part,  but  then  shall  I  know  even  as    / 
also  I  am  known."   "  I  shall  be  satisfied  when  I  awake  / 
with  thy  likeness."  ^ 

Nor  let  the  slanderous  assertion  be  made,  that  we  \ 
lower  the  standard  of  Christian  aspiration  and  endea-  \ 
vor,  in  our  system.  Kot  so.  We  tell  you  that  the 
standard  which  God  sets  before  his  people,  is  pei;fec- 
tion.  We  tell  you  that  you  are  to  strive  for  that,  live 
in  its  pursuit,  bring  all  the  energies  of  your  redeemed 
regenerated  sonl,  to  bear  npon  it,  pray  for  it,  labor  for 
it,  struggle  for  it,  sacrifice  for  it,  if  need  be  suffer, 
bleed,  die  for  it.  You  will  attain  to  it  at  last,  and  in 
the  struggle,  in  the  growth,  in  the  progress  through 
your  mortal  life,  you  will  make  brighter  evidence  that 
the  great  work  is  really  begun,  and  is  going  on  with- 
in your  soul. 

If  yon  do  not  struggle,  pray,  labor,  agonize,  for 
greater  measures  of  holiness,  you  have  reason  to  fear 
that  you  have  only  a  name  to  live,  and  that  the  heaven- 
sent principle  of  the  life  of  God,  has  never  found  its 
way  into  your  dead  and  ruined  soul.  So  that  one 
legitimate  influence  of  our  doctrine,  is  to  stimulate 
Christians  to  increased  diligence,  vigilance  and  prayer, 
that  they  be  going  from  grace  to  grace,  until  at  last, 


110  SANCTIFICATION. 

their  conflict  over,  the  last  enemy  vanquished,  they 
shall  reach  the  goal  of  perfect  holiness,  and  wear  the 
crown  of  eternal  blessedness — prepared  to  sing,  in  the 
music  of  the  skies,  the  glorious  anthem,  ''  Unto  him 
who  loved  us,  and  washed  us  from  our  sins,  in  his  own 
blood,  and  made  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God,  and 
his  father,  to  him  be  all  praise  and  glory,  dominion 
and  power,  forever  and  ever,  Amen,  and.  Amen !" 


VII.       /^u^,  j-/^' 
REDEMPTION. 


In  this  magnificent  word,  Redemption,  we  have  the 
summing  up  and  the  climax  of  tlie  apostle's  descrip- 
tion of  the  work  of  Christ  for  man.  In  the  passage 
whose  numerous  and  glorious  truths  have  been  under 
our  consideration,  the  divine  Saviour  is  set  before  us 
in  all  the  different  phases  and  relations,  which  make 
him  so  unspeakably  precious  to  the  human  soul.  As 
the  natural  state  of  man  is  one  of  spiritual  ignorance, 
and  as  without  divine  illumination  he  will  never  attain 
to  a  knowledge  of  God,  so  Christ  is  first  revealed  as 
his  instructor,  who  in  the  forcible  and  beautiful  lessons 
of  his  character,  and  his  atoning  work,  pours  light 
upon  the  great  truths  which  man  needs  to  know. 
Then,  when  this  illuminating  process  has  been  accom- 
plished, inasmuch  as  man  has  learned  the  dark  lesson 
of  his  own  guilt,  and  just  exposure  to  the  displeasure 
of  a  holy  God,  and  the  awful  malediction  of  a  broken 
law,  and  needs  a  justifying  righteousness,  in  which  he 
may  appear  before  his  judge,  Christ  is  next  presented 

111 


112  C  U  K  I  S  T      <)  U  K 

as  his  righteousness,  as  one  who  has  made  good  liis 
relations  to  the  viohited  hiw,  and  made  it  possible  for 
God  to  be  just,  and  yet  justify  the  repenting  and  be- 
lieving sinner.  The  next  great  necessity  of  man,  lies 
in  the  fact,  that  the  new  life  which  has  been  implanted 
within  him  is  feeble,  easily  choked  by  the  hostile  in- 
fluences of  remaining  corruption,  and  an  unfriendly 
world.  He  needs  constant  assistance,  in  order  that 
the  holy  principle  which  has  been  implanted  within 
him,  may  be  strengthened,  and  grow  in  beauty  and 
fruitfulness,  day  by  day.  Therefore,  Christ  is  next 
revealed  to  him  as  the  author  of  the  work  of  sancti- 
tication,  which  the  Divine  Spirit,  in  consequence  of 
the  Saviour's  death  and  intercession,  carries  on  in  the 
heart  of  every  true  believer,  by  the  appointed  means, 
until  he  is  perfected  in  heaven.  And  now  what  is  left 
for  the  Christian  to  wish  for,  in  his  Saviour  ?  What 
phase  can  Jesus  now  assume,  essential  to  the  com- 
pleteness of  his  w^ork  for  man  ?  If  he  is  his  wisdom, 
his  righteousness,  his  sanctification,  what  more  can  he 
be  ?  If  he  provides  instruction  for  his  darkened  mind, 
justification  for  his  guilty  soul,  purification  for  his 
polluted  nature,  what  more  is  there  for  him  to  do  ? 
Oh !  my  readers,  all  this  work  is  as  yet  partial  and 
unfinished.  We  know  in  part.  The  touch  of  the 
Almighty  Redeemer  has  been  on  our  sightless  eye- 
balls, but  we  see  men  as  trees  walking ;  we  see  as 
\  through  a  glass,  darkly.  The  justifying  work  of  our 
Saviour  is  hideed  complete,  when  we  are  pardoned 
and  accepted  as  the  children  of  God ;  but  the  blessed 
fruits  of  that  justifying  work  do  not  all  grow  upon 
earthlv  soil.     The  title  deeds  of  "an  inheritance,  in- 


REDEMPTION.  113 

corruptible,  imdefiled,  and  that  fadetli  not  away,"/ 
are  indeed  drawn  up,  and  surely  sealed  with  the  blood 
of  Jesus,  but  that  inheritance  is  still  reserved  in  heaven 
for  us,  and  many  a  mile  of  w^eary  travel  through  the 
wiUlerness  is  before  us,  before  Ave  shall  reach  the  bet- 
ter country,  where  we  shall  attain  to  its  full  fruition. 
The  sanctifying  w^ork  of  the  Spirit  is  indeed  going  on 
within  us,  if  we  are  Christ's,  but  it  progresses  slowly, 
and  many  a  hard  fight  must  be  had  with  sin,  l)efore 
we  shall  wave  the  palm  branch  of  victory,  and  sing 
the  conqueror's  song,  beyond  the  cold  waters  of  Jor- 
don.  We  want  an  assurance  that  the  process  of  in- 
struction will  be  perfected ;  that  the  day  will  come, 
when  w^e  shall  see  not  as  through  a  glass,  darkly,  but 
face  to  face.  We  want  an  assurance,  that  we  shall  see 
the  King  in  his  beauty,  and  gaze  full  upon  the  ineffa- 
ble splendors  of  his  unveiled  countenance.  We  want 
an  assurance,  that  we  shall  truly  enter  upon  the  pos- 
session and  enjoyment  of  that  glorious  inheritance, 
which  is  reserved  in  heaven  for  us.  We  want  an  as- 
surance, that  this  conflict  with  sin,  under  which  we 
are  daily  striving,  shall  one  day  be  closed  in  final 
triumph ;  that  w^e  shall  at  last  be  conquerors,  and 
more  than  conquerors,  through  him  that  hath  loved 
us.  We  know  that  our  redemption  is  begun  ;  but  oh ! 
we  long  for  complete  deliverance.  We  know  that  we 
•are  now  the  sons  of  God,  but  it  doth  not  yet  appear 
what  we  shall  be ;  and  there  w^ould  still  have  been 
something  w^anting  in  the  revelation  of  our  precious 
Saviour  to  us,  if  it  had  not  been  told  us,  as  it  is  told 
us  in  our  text,  that  Christ  Jesus  is  made  of  God  unto 


114  CHRIST     OUR 

US,  not  only  Wisdom  and  Righteousness,  and  Sanctifi- 

cation,  hut  full  and  complete  Redemption. 

I      Complete  Redemption  !  perfect  freedom  from  igno- 

/  ranee,  from  guilt,  from  pollution ;  entire  deliverance 

\  from  temptation,  from  struggling,  and  from  sorrow  ; 

I  rest  from  every  burden,  triumph  over  eveiy  foe,  ease 

i    from  every  pain  ;  every  grief  removed,   every  tear 

I    wiped  away,  every  sigh  hushed,  every  longing  satis- 

1   fied;  the  enlarged  capacities  of  the  perfected  soul 

■  filled  to  overflowing,  with  pure  and  unalloyed  blessed- 
ness ;  this  is  to  be   the  everlasting  portion  of  every 

■  true  believer,  wdien  Christ  Jesus  is  made,  as  he  will 
one  day,  be  made  of  God  unto  him  complete,  finished 
Redemption. 

That  the  great  saving  work  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  in  the  heart  of  man,  is  to  be  finally  completed, 
and  the  top-stone  of  glory,  placed  upon  the  w^ork  of 
grace,  among  the  hallelujahs  of  heaven,  is  abundantly 
taught  in  the  Scriptures.  The  ancient  Prophet,  after 
describing  in  most  graphic  language,  the  humiliation 
and  sufle rings  of  the  Redeemer,  declares  that  "  he 
shall  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul  and  be  satisfied." 
And  can  the  sufl'ering,  dying  Saviour,  be  satisfied  with 
any  thing  less,  than  the  complete  Redemption  of  those 
for  whom  he  died  ?  Has  he  not  given  his  life  in  sacri- 
fice for  sinners,  and  paid  their  ransom  in  the  rich 
drops  of  his  heart's  blood,  and  will  he  be  satisfied, 
if  every  believing  and  penitent  soul  is  not,  by  the 
meritorious  efiicacy  of  that  blood,  cleansed  from  sin 
and  made  an  heir  to  glory  ?  Ko  !  He  is  "  the  author 
and  finisher  of  our  faith,  who  for  the  joy  set  before 


REDEMPTION.  115 

him,  endured  the  cross,  despising  the  shame,  and  is  set 
down  at  the  right  hand  of  the  throne  of  God." 

Wlien  on  eartli,  he  declared  to  his  disciples,  that  all 
his  people  should  come  to  him,  and  that  not  one  of 
them  should  perish.     And  the  Apostle  Paul  expresses, 
under  the  promptings  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  his  firm 
conviction,  that  he  who  had  begun  a  good  work  in  the 
Christians  of  his  times,  "  would  perform  it  until  the 
day  of  the  Lord  Jesus."     And  the  banished  Apostle, 
who  though  a  prisoner  on  a  solitary  ocean  rock,  cut 
off  by  a  cruel  tyrant  from  all  communion  with  tliis 
lower  world,  had  such  magnificent  visions  of  Heaven, 
and  communion  with  angelic  spirits,  has  told  us  in  the 
most  beautiful  language,  something  of  what  complete 
Redemption  is.     "  They  shall  hunger  no  more,  neither 
thirst  any  more,  neither  shall  the  sun  light  on  them, 
nor  any  heat.     The  Lamb  that  is  in  the  midst  of  the 
throne  shall  feed  them,  and  shall  lead  them  unto  liv- 
ing fountains  of  waters,  and  God  shall  wipe  away  all 
tears  from  their  eyes.     And  there  shall  be  no  more 
death,  neither  sorrow  nor  crying;  neither  shall  there 
be  any  more  pain,  for  the  former  things  are  passed 
away."     Multitudes  of  believers  have  realized  the 
truthfulness  of  these  splendid  revelations.     They  have 
gone   up  from  this  wilderness,  weary  and  foot-sore, 
with  their  shoulders  galled  with  the  burden  of  sin  and 
sorrow,  to  tread  with  a  free  step  and  a  joyful  heart, 
the  radiant  streets  of  the  Xew  Jerusalem.     They  have 
gone  up  from  the  by-waj^s  of  obscurity,  and  the  lowly 
dwellings  of  poverty,  to  take  precedence  of  angels, 
and  to  be  made  "  kings  and  priests  unto  God."     They 
have  gone  up  from  the  valley  of  humiliation,  where 


116  CHRIST     OUR 

they  sang  the  dirges  of  despondency,  and  wet  the 
ground  with  the  tears  of  penitence,  to  sing  on  the 
summits  of  the  mountains  of  glory,  the  jubilant  an- 
thems of  the  skies.  They  have  gone  up  from  the  bat- 
tle field,  all  marked  with  the  scars  of  the  conflict,  to 
rest  from  their  struggles,  while  the  wreath  of  the  con- 
queror forever  adorns  their  brow.  And  the  day  is 
coming  when  we  shall  join  them  there.  As  we  cross 
over  Jordan,  the  loved  ones  who  have  gone  before  us, 
and  over  whose  graves  we  shed  many  a  bitter  tear,  will 
troop  down  to  greet  us  as  we  reach  the  shore,  and 
with  joy  unspeakable,  and  full  of  glory,  will  welcome 
us  to  fruition  with  them,  of  the  blessedness  of  com- 
plete Redemption. 

The  redeeming  work  of  Christ  which  is  yet  to  be 
fully  perfected  in  heaven,  consists  of  those  elements 
which  are  presented  in  this  passage,  and  which  in  pre- 
vious chai^ters  have  been  at  some  length  considered. 
Tlie  illumination  of  the  darkened  mind ;  the  justifi- 
cation of  the  guilty  soul ;  and  the  purification  of  the 
polluted  nature.  These  difi*erent  processes,  in  the 
same  great  work,  when  fully  perfected,  make  com- 
plete Redemption. 

To  si^eak  of  what  this  will  be  is  almost  presump- 
/  tuous.  ''  Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither 
hath  entered  into  the  heart  of  man,  the  things  which 
^  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  him."  But  if 
we  can  catch  but  a  faint  glimpse  of  its  glory,  as  we 
toil  on  in  our  pilgrimage,  it  will  be  most  grateful  to 
us,  as  the  first  faint  pencilings  of  the  dawn,  to  the  eye 
of  the  watcher,  through  the  live  long  night. 

Think  then,  dear  readers,  what  it  will  be  to  know 


REDEMPTION.  117 

God  fully,  as  we  shall  know  him  in  Heaven.     Tlie 
truly  pious  lieart,  ever  longs  for  more  intimate  ac- 
quaintance and  fellowshi])  with  God.      Thus  David 
says :  ^'  As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water  brooks,  S'> 
panteth  my  soul  after  thee,   O,  God!"     "My  sou! 
thirsteth  for  God,  for  the  living  God  ;  when  shall  i 
come  and  appear  before  God?"     Xow  we  see  through 
a  veil.     The  medium  of  vision,  is  the  gross  material 
world,  and  the  glowing  pages  of  revelation,  but  the  veiy 
richness,  and  beauty,  and  sublimity  of  these  mani- 
festations of  the  Almighty,  only  make  us  more  desi- 
rous to  see  him  as  he  is,  and  to  know  even  as  we  are 
known.     What  revelations  of  God  will  Heaven  make 
to  the  believer  ?     What  floods  of  liglit  will  be  poured 
upon  the  eye  of  the  soul,  in  the  day  of  complete  Ke- 
demption,  which  the  weak  mortal  vision  could  never 
bear !     What  exalted  communications  of  the  perfec- 
tions of  the  Deity,  will  be  made  to  the  expanded 
mind !    What  a  clearing  up  of  all  mystery,  which  sur- 
rounded his  dealings,  and  which  often  put  our  faith 
and  submission  to  so  severe  a  test,  while  still  subject 
to  the  discipline  of  his  providence !     Then  shall  we 
know  the  full  meaning  of  the  title  which  our  Saviour 
bears  in  one   department  of  his  redeeming  work, — 
Wisdom.     In  this  world   there  is  much  that  we  long 
to  know  of  God,  and  all  spiritual  truth,  which  we 
cannot  learn  while  in  the  flesh.    Especially  is  this  true 
of  those  dispensations  of  Providence,  which  are  mys- 
terious and  overwhelming  in  their  character.     You 
did  not  know  why  God  saw  fit  to  afflict  you,  sorrowing 
mother ;  why  he  blighted  your  hope,  and  withered  the 
fair  bud  of  promise,  which  blossomed  so  sweetly  in 


118  CHRIST      OUR 

your  arms.  Your  faitli  indeed  exclaimed,  "  Even  so 
Father,  for  so  it  seemed  good  in  tliy  sight !"  But  your 
reason  was  staggered,  and  you  could  not  comprehend 
why  that  stunning  blow  was  struck.  The  day  of  com- 
plete redemption  draweth  nigh.  Then  all  that  mys- 
tery shall  be  cleared  up.  Then  every  dark  place  shall 
be  filled  with  light.  Then  you  shall  be  taught  why 
God's  dealings  were  so  mercifully  severe,  and  the 
knowledge  shall  only  increase  your  adoration  and 
love.  And  you  too, —  the  bereaved  and  desolate  one, 
from  whom  relentless  Death  has  torn  the  companion 
of  your  youth,  and  the  dearer  friend  of  your  riper 
years  ;  you  have  been  unable  to  fathom  the  depth  of 
the  mystery,  whose  darkness  lingers  yet  upon  your 
soul.  Still  do  you  ask,  "  Ah !  why  am  I  thus  deso- 
late and  alone."  Tried  one  —  complete  redemption 
is  at  hand.  Then  the  cloud  and  the  mist  shall  be 
rolled  away  from  before  your  vision,  and  you  shall  see 
clearly  the  thing,  which  is  now  hidden  from  your  eyes. 
You  shall  understand  God's  dealings  fully,  and  the 
knowledge  shall  only  give  increased  depth  to  your 
homage  and  your  affection. 

There  is  one  subject  on  which  complete  redemption 
will  shed  clear  and  satisfying  light.  It  is  the  value 
of  the  soul.  The  worth  of  the  soul !  Little  do  we 
know  of  the  preciousness  of  the  immortal  spirit.  We 
may  have  sat  down,  and  attempted  to  solve  that  tre- 
mendous problem  in  moral  arithmetic,  which  the 
great  Teacher  has  given  us  in  his  word,  "  What  shall 
it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose 
his  own  soul  ? "  —  but  we  can  gain  but  an  indistinct 
idea  of  the  stupendous  answer.     "  The  worth  of  the 


REDEMPTION.  119 

soul,"  said  an  ancient  preacher,  ''  the  \^alue  of  tlie 
soul,"  who  can  tell  it?  Angels  know  it  not — they 
never  fell ;  devils  know  it  not  —  their  snfFerings  are 
never  at  an  end.  Son  of  God  —  thou  knowest  it !  — 
for  thou  didst  pay  the  price."  Complete  Redemption 
will  teach  us  all,  what  these  souls  of  ours  are  worth. 

Complete  Redemption  will  also  introduce  the  be- 
liever to  the  full  enjoyment  of  that  portion  which  is 
secured  to  him  by  Christ  his  Righteousness. 

There  is,  in  a  degree,  a  present  realization  of  the 
blessed  results  of  the  justifying  work  of  Christ,  for  us. 
"  Therefore,  being  justified  by  faith,  we  have  peace 
with  God,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ :  by  whom 
also  w^e  have  access  unto  this  grace  wherein  we  stand, 
and  rejoice  in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God."  The  ex- 
perience of  every  true  believer  has  borne  testimony 
to  the  power  of  the  hopes  of  religion,  to  bring  joy, 
and  strength,  and  consolation,  in  the  varied  scenes  of 
this  earthly  pilgrimage.  Godliness  is  profitable  unto 
all  things,  for  it  hath  tlie  promise  of  the  life  that  now  is, 
and  of  that  which  is  to  come."  Says  one,^  "I  have  seen 
this  Gospel  hush  into  a  calm,  the  tempest  raised  in  the 
bosom  of  conscious  guilt.  I  have  seen  it  melt  down 
the  most  obdurate,  into  tenderness  and  contrition.  I 
have  seen  it  cheer  up  the  broken-hearted,  and  bring 
the  tear  of  gladness,  into  eyes  swollen  with  grief.  I 
have  seen  it  produce  and  maintain  serenity,  under 
evils  which  drive  the  worldling  mad.  I  have  seen  it 
reconcile  the  sufferer  to  his  cross,  and  send  the  son 2: 
of  praise,  from  lips  quivering  with  agony.  I  have 
seen  it  enable  the  most  affectionate  relatives,  to  part 

*  Rev.  Dr.  Mason. 


120  CHKIST     OUE 

and  with  a  cordial  surrender  of  all  they  held  most 
in  death,  not  without  emotion,  but  without  repining, 
dear,  to  the  disposal  of  their  heavenly  Father.  I  have 
seen  the  fading  eye,  brighten  at  the  promise  of  Jesus, 
'  where  I  am,  there  shall  my  servant  be  also.'  I  have 
seen  the  faithful  spirit,  released  from  its  clay,  now 
mildly,  now  triumphantly,  to  enter  into  the  joy  of  its 
Lord." 

Such  present  effects  of  the  justification  of  the  sinner, 
through  faith  in  Christ  his  righteousness,  are  familiar 
to  the  experience  of  every  believer.  Tliey  are  present 
Redemption.  But  a  large  and  important  part  of  the 
office  of  religion,  in  this  life,  is  to  comfort,  and  make 
us  strong,  under  sorrow,  and  in  conflict.  —  But  when 
Redemption  is  complete,  there  will  be  no  sorrow  to  be 
comforted,  no  struggle,  in  which  the  soul  will  need  to 
be  strengthened.  Faith  now  sheds  light  upon  the 
darkness,  but  there  is  no  night  there.  Faith  now 
gives  us  an  anchor  in  the  storm,  but  in  heaven,  "there 
is  no  more  sea."  Faith  now  enables  us  to  bear  sick- 
ness, and  bereavement,  but, 

"  No  chilling  winds,  or  poisonous  breath, 
Can  reach  that  healthful  shore ; 
Sickness  and  sorrow,  pain  and  death. 
Are  felt,  and  feared  no  more." 

If  then,  when  Redemption  is  complete,  there  will 
be  no  sorrow,  sickness,  pain  or  sin,  to  be  contended 
with  by  the  believer,  who  can  describe,  who  can  con- 
ceive of  the  blessedness  of  such  redemption.  It  is  not 
the  mere  freedom  from  sorrow  and  suffering,  which 
will  make  it  so  glorious,  but  the  freedom  from  sin, 


REDEMPTION.  121 

which  is  the  parent  of  suflering.  It  is  not  merely 
the  absence  of  evil,  but  it  is  the  increased  and  ever 
increasing  presence  of  good  to  the  sonl.  No  time, 
no  strength  is  to  be  expended  there,  in  strnggling 
against  backsliding ;  but  every  faculty  of  the  sanc- 
tiiied  soul,  will  be  expended  in  progress  in  holiness, 
and  likeness  to  God.  Then  every  hope  which  glim- 
mered before  the  eye  of  the  soul,  like  a  star  shedding 
its  pale  beam  on  this  wilderness,  shall  give  place  to 
full  fruition  ;  every  aspiration  of  the  soul,  in  its  holiest 
moments,  will  be  more  than  realized,  and  the  believ- 
er who  longed  to  see  God,  and  behold  his  glory,  while 
yet  the  veil  was  upon  his  face,  then  "  beholding  as 
with  open  face,  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  shall  be  changed 
into  the  same  image  from  glory  to  glory,  as  by  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord." 

''  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be,  but  we 
know  that  when  he  shall  appear,  we  shall  be  like 
him,  for  we  shall  see  him  as  he  is."  "I  shall  be 
satisfied,  O  Lord,  when  I  awake  with  thy  likeness." 

Complete  Redemption  is  entire  sanctification.  The 
last  stains  of  corruption  shall  be  washed  off  in  the 
flowings  of  Jordan.  Let  the  tried  believer  take 
courage,  with  whom  in  this  imperfect  state 

"  The  rapture  of  pardon  is  mingled  with  fears, 
And  the  cup  of  thanksgiving  with  penitent  tears." 

The  day  of  deliverance  draweth  nigh.  ''Kow  is 
your  salvation  nearer  than  when  you  believed."  "  He 
that  hath  begun  a  good  work  in  you  will  perform  it 
until  the  day  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  And  when  that  day 
comes,  it  shall  witness  our  final  triumph  over  everv 
6 


122  CHRIST     OUR 

sin,  the  last  refining  process  will  be  over,  and  we  shall 
come  forth  from  the  furnace  of  earth,  to  reflect  in 
perfect  brightness  and  beauty,  the  great  Refiner's 
image. 

Oh,  Redemption  !  Redemption,  is  the  great  culmi- 
nating point  of  the  universe.  Towards  this,  every 
thing  in  God's  economy,  is  tending.  To  its  comple- 
tion, angels  are  looking  with  earnest  and  intense  an- 
ticipations, and  when  this  new  creation  shall  be  ended, 
the  morning  stars  will  sing  together  in  a  nobler  anthem, 
and  all  the  sons  of  God,  will  shout  for  joy. 

Redemption — complete  Redemption,  will  be  our 
song  in  heaven.  It  is  a  sweeter  song  than  the  cherubim 
sing.  Glorious  in  their  holiness,  splendid  in  their 
beauty,  wonderful  in  their  power,  the  angelic  hosts 
surround  the  throne  of  God.  Day  and  night  their 
chanting  ceases  not.  "  Holy,  holy,  holy  Lord  God 
Almighty,  which  was,  and  is,  and  is  to  come !"  But 
behold  there  comes  up  one,  toil  worn  from  earthly 
labors,  foot-sore  with  earthly  wanderings,  timid  from 
earthly  stragglings,  but  there  is  a  bright  crown  upon 
his  head,  and  a  shining  robe  around  him,  and  a  golden 
harp  in  his  hand ;  and  he  presses  near  the  throne ; 
and  the  shining  ranks  open  to  admit  him ;  and  the 
Father  smiles  on  him,  and  then  such  a  strain  of  melody 
bursts  from  his  harp,  as  Heaven  never  heard  before, 
and  its  rich  chorus  swells  through  the  heavenly  arches, 
"  Worthy  the  Lamb  that  was  slain,  for  he  redeemed 
me  with  his  own  blood."  It  is  the  song  of  Redemp- 
tion, sung  by  a  redeemed  and  glorified  sinner ;  our 
song,  dear  readers,  which  we  begin  in  the  stammering 
language  of  earth,  but  which  we  shall  sing  forever  in 


REDEMPTION.  123 


the  nobler  dialect  of  the  skies,  and  the  burden  of  that 
song  shall  ever  be,  ''  Christ  Jesus,  who  of  God  is  made 
unto  ns,  ^'  Wisdom,  and  Bighteousness,  and  Sanctificor 
tioji  and  Redemption^ 

Remember,  dear  readers,  what  this  Eedemption 
cost.  "  For  ye  were  not  redeemed  with  corruptible 
things,"  such  as  silver  and  gold,  but  with  the  precious 
blood  of  Christ,  as  of  a  lamb  without  blemish,  and 
without  spot."  Redeemed  ones !  bought  back  from 
sin,  and  death,  and  hell,  behold  the  price  of  your 
Redemption.  Can  you  compute  its  vast  amount. 
Place  the  work  of  Jesus  in  one  scale,  and  the  treasures 
and  crowns  of  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  worlds 
in  the  other,  and  what  are  they,  but  the  small  dust  of 
the  balance ;  one  drop  of  the  Redeemer's  blood  will 
far  outweigh  them  all. 

If  you  cannot  then  compute  the  vastness  of  the 
price,  can  you  comprehend  the  value  of  the  Redemp- 
tion itself?    m  !  not  fully.    For,  ''  eye  hath  not  seen,! 
no  ear  heard,  neither  hath  entered  into  the  heart  of  \ 
man,  the  things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  ^ 
that  love  him." 

But,  by  an  ever  increasing  love  to  your  Redeemer, 
by  renewed  diligence  and  zeal  in  his  service,  by  a 
growing  indifference  to  earthly  things,  and  a  deeper 
desire  after  more  entire  deliverance  from  sin,  you  can 
show  that  you  value,  in  some  degree,  what  Christ  has 
done  for  you.  Redeemed  Christians  ought  to  be 
faithful  Christians,  for  "  ye  are  not  your  own ;  ye  are 
bought  with  a  price ;  therefore  glorify  God  in  your 
bodies  and  your  spirits,  which  are  God's." 

Let  your  life,  dear  reader,  be  one  constant  anthem 


124:  CHRIST     OUK 

of  tlianksgiving  to  God,  for  Eedemption.  He  cares 
not  for  the  praises  of  the  lips,  nor  the  mere  outward 
bodyings  forth  of  devotion.  He  listens  for  the  voices 
of  the  heart — he  is  pleased  with  the  grateful  music  of 
the  soul.  A  good  man's  life  is  a  constant  hymn  of 
praise  to  Jehovah.  It  makes  God  glorious  in  the  eyes 
of  men.  It  commends  the  Divine  Redeemer  to  their 
love.  It  is  a  constant  testimony  to  the  excellence  of 
spiritual  things.  It  is  "a  shining  light,  shining  more 
and  more  unto  the  perfect  day."  "As  ye  have  received 
Christ  Jesus  the  Lord,  so  walk  ye  in  him."  "  Let  your 
conversation  be  as  becometh  the  Gospel  of  Christ ; 
and  the  life  which  you  live  in  the  flesh,  let  it  be  by 
the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  you  and  gave 
himself  for  you." 

Finally,  — let  redemption  by  the  blood  of  Christ  be 
your  song,  in  this  house  of  your  pilgrimage.  If  you 
lose  sight  of  the  Cross,  you  must  hang  your  harp  uj)on 
the  willows.  Without  Redemption,  the  world  is  but  a 
great  sepulchre  —  the  charnel  house  of  souls,  and  its 
diy  bones  can  never  live.  The  last  ray  of  hope  for 
man,  goes  out  in  darkness,  when  he  loses  sight  of  the 
Cross  of  Christ.  Its  glory  eclipses  every  other,  and 
the  day  is  coming,  when  the  whole  universe  will  be 
flooded  with  that  glory.  The  Church  of  Christ,  re- 
deemed by  his  precious  blood,  is  yet  to  overspread  the 
earth,  and  from  pole  to  pole,  is  to  reach  the  chorus  of 
Redemption.  "  Who  is  this  that  cometh  up  from  the 
wilderness,  leaning  on  her  beloved  ?  Who  is  she,  that 
looketh  forth  from  the  morning,  fair  as  the  moon,  clear 
as  the  sun,  and  terrible  as  an  army  with  banners  ?" 
"I  will  rejoice  in  Jerusalem,  and  joy  in  my  people. 


REDEMPTION.  125 

and  the  voice  of  weeping  shall  be  no  more  heard  in 
her,  nor  her  voice  of  crying."  "  For  the  ransomed  of 
the  Lord  shall  retnrn  and  come  to  Zion,  with  songs 
of  everlasting  joy  npon  their  heads.  They  shall  ob- 
tain joy  and  gladness,  and  sorrow  and  sighing  shall 
flee  away."  Eising  high,  above  all  the  melodies  of 
the  earth,  above  the  songs  of  pleasure,  above  the 
shouts  of  the  warrior,  the  triumphal  odes  of  the  con- 
queror, the  mingled  voices  of  nature,  shall  yet  l)e 
heard  the  pealing  notes,  of  the  song  of  Tledemption. 
From  the  north  and  the  south,  from  eastern  and  west- 
ern shores,  and  from  the  isles  which  sparkle  upon  the 
bosom  of  the  deep,  it  shall  be  borne  aloft,  and  like  the 
mingling  of  many  w4nds,  shall  rise  to  blend  with  the 
shoutings  of  the  cherubim  over  a  world  redeemed. 


THE    END. 


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